The Handmaid's Tale beyond TV: transmedia storytelling, contemporary feminist activism and social protest
Notice bibliographique
Résumé
This PhD dissertation explores the online circulation of the television adaptation The Handmaid’s Tale (2017-) created by Bruce Miller and released in 2017 on Hulu. Since its televisual debut, The Handmaid’s Tale, based on the 1985 novel of the same name by Canadian author Margaret Atwood, has become a viral sensation and been popularised within mainstream feminist culture through its repurposing in global social protest and hashtag activism. The iconography of The Handmaid’s Tale has taken hold in the online sphere and been transformed into a transnational, feminist symbol (Bell, 2018), circulating as a means of political commentary against the alt right agenda. This thesis considers how The Handmaid’s Tale operates as a transmedia phenomenon of #MeToo television and investigates the complex ways in which it engages with the key themes of the fourth wave of feminism, in particular gendered violence. This thesis argues that, as a transmedia object, The Handmaid’s Tale foregrounds the perils and the possibilities of digital feminist activism and popular feminism. After elaborating on the feminist qualities of the TV series, I examine the role of The Handmaid’s Tale beyond television, through an analysis of its repurposing in three different case studies: the Golden Globes ceremony of 2018 which followed the Weinstein sexual abuse charges and the rise of #MeToo as a hashtag activist event; the legislation of the Abortion Bans in Alabama, US in 2019, and lastly, the Kavanaugh-Ford hearing in 2018, following Dr Christine Blasey Ford’s sexual assault allegations against the now Supreme Court Judge. To trace the significance of The Handmaid’s Tale beyond television, I also look into the controversial cases of misuse and commodification of the imagery, which led to a viral backlash. As such, this research finds that The Handmaid’s Tale has become a powerful meme which is deployed by feminist online publics as a tool for political participation and expression beyond the TV series. This thesis argues that The Handmaid’s Tale has taken on its own affective life within the digital realm. Therefore, The Handmaid’s Tale, beyond the TV screen and within meme culture, works as a visualisation of the cultural anxieties of feminist communities and enables feminist solidarity and resistance. The powerful imagery of The Handmaid’s Tale serves as a point of unification for feminists to bring visibility to issues prominent within the current political landscape, especially in the US – a symbol through which a multitude of feminist concerns could be expressed. However, the perpetuation of the perception of The Handmaid’s Tale as a feminist text is further discussed and challenged in this thesis, as Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale and its reappropriation in the online sphere as a feminist symbol represents the popularisation of feminism that comes with shortcomings regarding issues of race and intersectionality in relation to contemporary feminism.
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Comment cette classification a été obtenuedéplier
Prédiction machine sur la base complète
Imitation des enseignantsNi prévalence calibrée, ni vérité terrain. Validation humaine à venir. Le volet Gemma est une étiquette directe du modèle pour chaque travail de la base, lue sur la notice réduite au titre. Le volet Codex est un classifieur appris des 10 348 étiquettes directes de Codex et calibré sur les taux pondérés de l'échantillon; les champs sans appui suffisant ne portent aucun appel Codex. Le mode candidate est l'union des deux volets; le consensus est leur intersection. Ces sorties portent le statut machine_predicted_unvalidated et ne sont pas des étiquettes humaines.
Scores du classifieur distillé par catégorie (deux têtes)
| Catégorie | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Métarecherche | 0,002 | 0,003 |
| Méta-épidémiologie (sens strict) | 0,000 | 0,000 |
| Méta-épidémiologie (sens large) | 0,000 | 0,000 |
| Bibliométrie | 0,001 | 0,001 |
| Études des sciences et des technologies | 0,010 | 0,021 |
| Communication savante | 0,010 | 0,006 |
| Science ouverte | 0,001 | 0,007 |
| Intégrité de la recherche | 0,002 | 0,002 |
| Charge utile insuffisante (le modèle a refusé de juger) | 0,007 | 0,001 |
Scores machine (provisoires)
Les deux têtes enseignantes du modèle étudiant, lues sur ce travail. Un score ordonne la base pour la relecture; il n'affirme jamais une catégorie, et le statut de validation accompagne chaque rangée tel quel.
Scores de référence d'un modèle non mature (critères de maturité non atteints, 7 itérations). Un score ordonne; il n'affirme jamais une catégorie.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · tel quel depuis la passe de notation : score_only signifie que le nombre peut ordonner les travaux, et qu'aucune étiquette de catégorie n'en découleClassification
machine, non validéePrédiction automatique; un appel candidat d’une seule source (Gemma direct ou Codex distillé), pas un consensus.
Le détail, modèle par modèle et score par score, se trouve en fin de page sous « Comment cette classification a été obtenue ».