From Myth to Meme: Reinventing (Yet Again) Marie Antoinette in the Age of Streaming.

The 2022 Canal+/PBS/BBC series Marie Antoinette not only comes as evidence of the enduring mystique around the eighteenth-century queen of France, but illustrates her appropriation by contemporary creators who want to deal with twenty-first century issues. Under the guise of delivering a biopic, the writing team explores the condition of women through a Marie Antoinette who is neither a historical figure nor a fictional character, but someone with whom younger viewers can empathize. Paradoxically, however, this updated Marie Antoinette appears both as a model of female resilience and necessary self-care in a persistently misogynistic and patriarchal society, and as the ultimate exemplar of the pampered, self-indulgent one-percenter. Setting aside obvious anachronism, we have to wonder what the series' creators aim to accomplish by revisiting history in such an ambiguous manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]