Literature and audiovisual: Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and the adaptation and permanence of dystopian elements in the television series

2026-03-302026-03-302026-02-24MOREIRA, Daniella Kimberly Baia. Literature and audiovisual: Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and the adaptation and permanence of dystopian elements in the television series. Orientadora: Ana Mabell Seixas Alves Santos. 2026. 61 f. Trabalho de Curso (Licenciatura em Letras Língua Inglesa) – Faculdade de Línguas Estrangeiras, Campus Universitário de Bragança, Universidade Federal do Pará, Bragança, 2026. Disponível em: https://bdm.ufpa.br/handle/prefix/9413. Acesso em: .https://bdm.ufpa.br/handle/prefix/9413This study analyzes the transition of Margaret Atwood's (1985) The Handmaid's Tale from literature to television, with an emphasis on the continuity of dystopian aspects in the series. Based on adaptation theory and analyses of dystopia, the study evaluates how main themes, such as authoritarian control, gender oppression, surveillance, and resistance, are maintained, altered, or expanded in the series. Through a comparison of the narrative, character development, and visual techniques, the research seeks to understand how the series updates and intensifies the warnings present in the original work for a current audience. The analysis takes into account the sociopolitical context of both the book's release in 1985 and the adaptation's premiere, showing the continued importance of dystopian fiction at different historical moments. The results indicate that despite the introduction of new plots and symbolic visual elements, the series preserves the dystopian core present in the novel, reinforcing its critiques of power, patriarchy, and institutional violence. Thus, it is concluded that the adaptation is not limited to reproducing the original text, but reinterprets and re-signifies its dystopian aspects, ensuring its relevance and presence in contemporary audiovisual culture.Acesso AbertoAdaptationDystopiaAudiovisual MediaBiopoliticsGenderSurveillanceAdaptaçãoDistopiaAudiovisualBiopolíticaGêneroVigilânciaCNPQ::LINGUISTICA, LETRAS E ARTES::LETRASLiterature and audiovisual: Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and the adaptation and permanence of dystopian elements in the television seriesTrabalho de Curso - Graduação - MonografiaAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Brazil