Voiceover Narration and the Split Self in The Handmaid’s Tale TV Series

This chapter examines the cognitive stylistic features of the voiceover narration in the first television series adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale (MGM & Hulu. The handmaid’s tale (TV series, series 1), 2017). Through analysis of voiceovers and corresponding production choices in the adaptation of the book within the series, this chapter explores, first, how the different modes of communication—both choices of visual production such as shallow-focus shots, and linguistic features such as you-address and container metaphors—combine to show June/Offred’s split perspective; and second, how these stylistic elements work to foreground the series’ key themes of imprisonment, objectification and surveillance.