ABSTRACT

Margaret Atwood’s most famous dystopian novel, The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), is one of those stories whose message seems to carry across the ages. The hyperreal patriarchy-as-terror-regime that The Handmaid’s Tale portrays has become a well-known shorthand in feminist protest culture. Its presence became even more prominent in response to Donald Trump’s 2016 election, and its visibility as a protest symbol there and at other events aimed at curbing women’s rights was strengthened by the visual imagery of the novel’s most recent adaptation. The Handmaid’s Tale and Atwood’s 2019 addition to its storyworld, The Testaments, with adaptations across media, have effectively given shape to what has become a media franchise. As its uses in the context of feminist politics and populism show, this franchise refers not only to commercial concerns; it also references a form of political enfranchisement in that it offers tools and language for calling out patriarchy. We argue that the conglomerate of Gilead media texts engenders a fraught franchise in both commercial and politically emancipatory senses. While only reluctantly ‘offering itself up’ for commercial exploitation, the franchise makes itself freely and prominently available to feminist protest culture.

摘要

玛格丽特·阿特伍德最著名的反乌托邦小说《使女的故事》（1985）是其信息似乎跨越时代的故事之一。《使女的故事》所描绘的超现实的父权制恐怖政权已成为女权主义抗议文化中众所周知的速记。它的存在在唐纳德特朗普 2016 年的选举中变得更加突出，并且它作为抗议符号的可见性在那里和其他旨在遏制妇女权利的活动中被小说最近改编的视觉形象所加强。使女的故事和阿特伍德 2019 年在其故事世界中的新增内容，遗嘱，通过跨媒体的改编，有效地塑造了已经成为媒体特许经营权的东西。正如它在女权主义政治和民粹主义背景下的使用所表明的那样，这种特许经营权不仅指商业问题；它还提到了一种政治选举权，因为它提供了呼唤父权制的工具和语言。我们认为，吉利德媒体文本的综合体在商业和政治解放意义上产生了令人担忧的特许经营权。虽然只是不情愿地为商业剥削“献身”，但特许经营权却让自己自由而显眼地被女权主义抗议文化所利用。