Description
Book SynopsisThis book engages with Margaret Atwood’s work and its adaptations. Atwood has long been appreciated for her ardent defence of Canadian authors and her genre-bending fiction, essays, and poetry. However, a lesser-studied aspect of her work is Atwood’s role both as adaptor and as source for adaptation in media as varied as opera, television, film, or comic books. Recent critically acclaimed television adaptations of the novels The Handmaid’s Tale (Hulu) and Alias Grace (Amazon) have rightfully focused attention on these works, but Atwood’s fiction has long been a source of inspiration for artists of various media, a seeming corollary to Atwood’s own tendency to explore the possibilities of previously undervalued media (graphic novels), genres (science-fiction), and narratives (testimonial and historical modes). This collection hopes to expand on other studies of Atwood’s work or on their adaptations to focus on the interplay between the two, providing an interdisciplinary approach that highlights the protean nature of the author and of adaptation.
Trade Review“The sixteen pieces in this volume, partly illustrated with colored stills and screenshots, photographs, diagrams, or musical scores, build a comprehensive piece of conducted research about the texts of Margaret Atwood … . The fact that a great number of fans, academics, readers, or artists keep returning to the creative output of Margaret Atwood … Atwood’s alchemy leaves no doubt that her magic ‘has to do, in one word, with relevance’ … .” (Sandra Danneil, AAA, Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik, Vol. 47 (1), June, 2022)
“This volume sheds light on the legacy in which Atwood inserts herself, and on the legacy she leaves for others to reinterpret through their perspectives and sensitivities. Articles as well as interviews offer insight into the subversive aspects of literary fiction, and enhance the political necessity of adapting and updating these narratives in the light of contemporary events.” (Laura Benoit, Interfaces, Vol. 48, 2022)
“Students will love this book, and for readers anywhere it will stimulate a fresh creative engagement with Atwood’s imagined worlds.” (Coral Ann Howells, British Journal of Canadian Studies, Vol. 34 (2), 2022)
Table of ContentsPart I Atwood Adapts
“Atwood’s Hag-Seed and The Heart Goes Last, a Generic Romp”
“Negotiating with the Dead”: Authorial Ghosts and Other Spectralities in Atwood’s Adaptations
Transforming the Human and the Novel: The Utopian Potential of Resilience in Margaret Atwood’sM addAddam Trilogy
Atwood’s Protean Poetics: Adaptation in the Service of Survival
Feminist Adaptations/Adaptations of Feminism: Margaret Atwood’s
The PenelopiadPart II Atwood Adapted
The Unreliable Female (Narrator) in Mary Harron’s Miniseries Alias Grace
The Figure of the Objectified Servant, from the Silent Biblical Maid to the Twenty-First-Century Web TV Rebel
Shallow Focus Composition and the Poetics of Blur in The Handmaid’s Tale (Hulu, 2017–)
Feminism, Facts, and Fear: The Protean Reception of The Handmaid’s Tale (Atwood 1985, Miller 2017–)
You Are Here: The Handmaid’s Tale as Graphic Novel
Offred at the Opera: Dimensions of Adaptation in Poul Ruders and Paul Bentley’sT he Handmaid’s Tale
Part III Atwood in the World: Atwood Adaptation Practitioners
Staging
The PenelopiadFilming Alias Grace
Filming The Handmaid’s Tale
“Adapting (to) Atwood”
