‘Thank you for Creating this World for all of us’: Globality and the Reception of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale after its Television Adaptation

Abstract

espanolEste articulo examina la recepcion de la novela The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) de Margaret Atwood tras su adaptacion en 2017 a una serie de television producida por Hulu que ha obtenido numerosos premios. La recepcion de la serie se lleva a cabo a traves de una seleccion de articulos en ingles publicados en linea (online) que se analizan bajo la perspectiva de las teorias de Manfred B. Steger sobre la globalidad. La adaptacion televisiva de The Handmaid’s Tale ha tenido un enorme impacto global debido a su diseminacion a traves de las redes sociales y de las noticias publicadas en internet, y tambien gracias a la concurrencia de ciertos procesos sociales. Los articulos periodisticos que he analizado se polarizan entre los que argumentan que The Handmaid’s Tale refleja la America de Trump y los que rechazan esta opinion. Mi tesis es que en las dos categorias los articulistas estan apropiandose de un producto cultural con intenciones ideologicas o politicas. EnglishThis article explores the reception of Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) after its adaptation into an award-winning television series produced by Hulu in 2017. The reception of the show is studied through a selection of English language articles published online, which are analysed in the light of Manfred B. Steger’s theories on globality. The television adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale has had a global impact thanks to its dissemination through the social media and internet news outlets and because of the random concurrence of certain social processes. The news items I analysed polarize themselves into those who argue that The Handmaid’s Tale series holds up a mirror to Trump’s America and those who reject this belief. In both categories, the commentators are co-opting a cultural product for ideological or political purposes.