University of Hertfordshire - English Literature Masterclass

English Literature Masterclass: ‘What we have before us is not the item in its original form’: Reading, adapting and politicising The Handmaid’s Tale today

Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaids Tale (1985) remains one of the best-selling feminist dystopian novels of the twentieth century, frequently taught at A level and the subject of much critical discussion. This has especially been the case since the widely praised Hulu TV adaptation (2017) which prompted a resurgence of interest in the novel and has been the inspiration for contemporary protest movements. This session will ask what it means to read the novel today in light of these wider contexts, introducing the ways in which the study of the TV adaptation highlights how oppression, gender and the past are represented in the text.