Narration from Textual to Graphic Novel：The Visualized Violence in Renée Nault’s Graphic Novel The Handmaid’s Tale文献综述

 2022-08-11 03:08

Literary Review

As a speculative fiction which describes the miserable life in the fictive dystopia, the Republic of Gilead, violence, especially towards women, seems to be an important keyword for reading and criticizing Atwoodrsquo;s famous The Handmaidrsquo;s Tale. Numerous academic results are bound up with this keyword when it comes to The Handmaidrsquo;s Tale.

The rationale for the emergence of Gilead is the ecological predicament, which leads to the low fertility and the crisis of reproduction over that period, originated with the environmental devastation by human beings. From the perspective of ecocriticism, the connection between violence and ecology, even with these women, the major focus of this works, has been the concerns among scholars. For example, Zhang Dongmei and Fu Junrsquo;s “An Ecofeminist Interpretation of Atwoodrsquo;s The Handmaidrsquo;s Tale” argues that, by analyzing the women-nature relationship revealed in the novel, Atwoodrsquo;s profound ecological concern and feminist consciousness is advanced. In the context which shows much cares to the environment at the present, these researches provide the best evidence to reflect Atwoodrsquo;s sensitive and advanced awareness towards the environmental protection under her pen of the depicts on such an ecologically damaged country.

Besides the relevance between violence and ecology, as a dystopian fiction, the association between violence and the totalitarianism, to put it in another way, the social space and violence, is expressed. For example, in Ding Linpengrsquo;s “Spatial Politics in Margaret Atwoodrsquo;s The Handmaidrsquo;s Tale”, the power permeated in public, familial, and privative space in the Gilead has been analyzed. Wang Yipingrsquo;s “The Subversion against Modern Society in The Handmaidrsquo;s Tale: The War between Fundamentalist Theocracy and Risk Society” argues that the dystopian totalitarian country provides an alarming warn to the civilized modern society. Again, it projects that the violence is a keyword which cannot be avoided, in terms of The Handmaidrsquo;s Tale, through the oppression and realpolitik in any space of the Gilead.

The violence towards women, the spotlight in the dystopian narration, however, has been the critical focus among scholars both domestically and diplomatically. Therefore, asserting the violent oppression towards women, especially the handmaids, numerous essays on feminism, has become a unique landscape in critics. One the one hand, all the handmaids, represented by the female protagonist Offred, seem to catch the aphasia through the dominant and compulsive sermons in Gilead. On the other hand, these handmaids have become the walking womb under the discipline of their commanders, which means the only purpose for their bodies is to breed. Many researches, in terms of violence towards female body and discourse right, are conducted on this issue. For example, Ding Linpengrsquo;s “Body Politics in Margaret Atwoodrsquo;s The Handmaidrsquo;s Tale” argues that the human body serves as the primary site of conflict, often taken prisoner by the unstoppable necessity of social management under the theocratic power structure. In addition, his “The Politics of Discourse in Margaret Atwoodrsquo;s The Handmaidrsquo;s Tale” points out “In the novel, language is not merely a means of communication but more importantly an instrument for cultural and ideological subjugation of individuals. The politics of discourse as a site of power politics permeates the various aspects of social life and serves as the arbitrator of social identity as well as the ordering of social structure.” (2015: 91). In a word above all, the terribly shocking violence, no matter towards the ecology, society and women, buried in the fiction is worthwhile for researching.

As the most popular works in the contemporary literary world, the cross-text comparison among other fictions and intermediary researches on its many excellent adaptations, also, are the feverishly critical issue. In the comparison across other texts, definitely, Nineteen Eighty-Four, by George Orwell is one should be discussed. Some even advocates that The Handmaidrsquo;s Tale is “the feminist 1984”. As the comment said “this novel inherits the political allegorical tradition represented by Orwellrsquo;s Nineteen Eighty-Four with pointedly display of the totalitarian utopia hellip; thus revealing authorrsquo;s special concern on womenrsquo;s living via this intertextuality”(Wang Wei, Yang Lixin, 2019: 99). Obviously, the affinity between women and violence cannot be ignored even if in the cross-text reading. Although much concerns are given to the different narrative characteristics among the colorfully narrative media, the primary task should still be the presentation of violence in the original works no matter how differentiated these media are. For example, the essay which we mentioned above, argues the differences on the extreme demonstration of male chauvinism and symbolic meaning of colors between Atwoodrsquo;s original works and Pinterrsquo;s film adaptation.

Naultrsquo;s graphic novel The Handmaidrsquo;s Tale is not be introduced and discussed widely in the academia for the moment both diplomatically and domestically, to a certain extent; some comments such as “I feel blasphemous of saying this, but I think this edition of The Handmaidrsquo;s Tale might actually better than the original” reflects how successfully the graphic adaptation is. Therefore, it triggers an important literary issue which is the destiny of literary narrations, the narrative of novels particularly, under the background of the rising of picture-reading in this era.

As Ales Erjavec said “I never read, I just observe some pictures” in his monograph, seemingly, we are experiencing a reading era dominated by the pictures but not the texts (2003: 5-6). Facing such an embarrassing dilemma, the argument of the ending finality of the novelrsquo;s narration is approaching.

These judgements can be seen from some scholarsrsquo; essays published, though their arguments are aimed at the film, or the image narrative, and the textual novel. Li Zuolin comments that “Novel is a kind of art which explores the meaning of being, and can never fit into the logic of imagination, so it finally meets its end” (2017: 50). Besides, Hu Gongsheng comments that “In image reading times, discourse hegemony has given way to image hegemony” (2010: 73).

剩余内容已隐藏，您需要先支付 10元 才能查看该篇文章全部内容！立即支付

免费ai写开题、写任务书： 免费Ai开题 | 免费Ai任务书 | 降AI率 | 降重复率 | 论文一键排版

您可能感兴趣的文章