I tell, therefore you are: Notes on The Handmaid’s Tale and its graphic adaptation

Abstract

Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, has invited revisitation and reinterpretation over time. One reinterpretation surfaced in 2019 in the form of a graphic adaptation by Renée Nault. Was she successful? Was there anything lost – or gained – in the transition from text to comic? Are these two Tales one and the same? Utilizing theories from sociology, art history and illustration, this article explores how real-world inequalities and oppressive regimes are distilled into Atwood’s fictional dystopia, and then, in turn, how her ideas are translated into a visual medium in Renée Nault’s graphic novel adaptation. The colour red becomes fraught with meaning for both character and reader, while the illustration of the body can evoke control over, and violence towards, women. The authors adopt a call-and-response format and create ‘visual texts’ in response to each other’s work to echo the act of adaptation and the cyclical nature of ideas.