Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
by Suzanne Collins
Instituto Superior del Profesorado Prbro. Dr. Antonio M.
saenz
Subject: Language and Culture II
Critical Theory
Lecturer: Mara Cristina Llorente
Student: Mara Amalia Lazzatti
RECEPTION
STUDIES
INTERTEXTUAL
CONNECTIONS
STRUCTURALISM
THE
HUNGER
GAMES
GENDER
STUDIES
GENRE
POWER
RELATIONS
RECEPTION STUDIES
Context of Culture
Context
of
Production
The Author
Context
(history /culture)
Context
of
Reception
Interpretive
Community
Personal reception
Context of Production
The Author
Suzanne Collins not a human being in isolation
Her father was career Air Force, a military specialist, a historian, and a doctor
of political science. When I was a kid, he was gone for a year in Viet
Nam. (Q and A with Suzanne Collins)
Her father
grew up during the Depression. For his family, hunting was not a sport but a
way to put meat on the table. He also knew a certain amount about edible plants. Hed go into the
woods and gather all these wild mushrooms and bring them home and saut them. (Q and A with
Suzanne Collins)
Context (culture-history)
2000
Hilary R Clinton - US Senate
George W Bush
2001
2002
Iraq WMD Anti-war movement
2004
Bush reelected
Facebook
2005
Youtube
2006
Blu Ray
Depression GM / Banks
2007
Virginia Tech Massacre
2008
Barack Obama elected president
Context of Reception
Fish Reader - response
Interpretive Community
Conflictive figure
Topical allusions
The Capitol lies in the West. Unreachable from
the East. = Pre 9/11 conception
The mountains form a natural barrier between the Capitol and the Eastern
Districts. It is almost impossible to enter from the East except through the
tunnels (p.59)
The Draft
"The reaping is a good opportunity for the Capitol to keep tabs on the
13 Districts = 13 colonies
The Anthem = The Flag
Context of Culture
Dystopia
Dictatorial regime
Post-apocalyptic country
http://mentalfloss.com/article/29892/libraries-panem-geography
STRUCTURALISM
STRUCTURALISM
Binary Oppositions
Semiology
Narratology
Binary Oppositions
The text is a structure A system made up of elements
Submission
VS
Rebellion
... I know there must be more than they're telling us, an actual account
of what happened during the rebellion. But I don't spend much time
thinking about it. Whatever the truth is, I don't see how it will help me
get food on the table." (p.42)
Rues death has forced me to confront my own fury against the
cruelty, the injustice they inflict upon us I want to do something,
right here, right now, to shame them, to make them accountable , to
show the Capitol that whatever they do or force us to do there is a part
of every tribute that they cant own.
Sophistication
VS
Dereliction (city)
Glamorisation
VS
Shabbiness (people)
Consumerism
VS
Deprivation
Electrical Power
VS
Blackout
The Capitol chooses when they have electricity and when they dont.
They mostly dont have any, since Katniss and Gale go over the fence
without difficulty.
They make sure theres electricity when theres required watching to be
done.
Mercy
VS
Cruelty
Communication
Connection
VS
Broadcasting
Isolation
Fitting
VS
Divergence
Suddenly I am furious, that with my life on the line, they dont even
have the decency to pay attention to me. That Im being upstaged by a
dead pig. My heart starts to pound. I can feel my face burning. Without
thinking, I pull an arrow from my quiver and send it straight at the
Gamemakers table. I hear shouts of alarm as people stumble back.
The arrow skewers the apple in the pigs mouth and pins it to the wall
behind it. Everyone stares at me in disbelief . Thank you for your
consideration -, I say. Then I give a slight bow and walk straight toward
the exit without being dismissed. (p. 102)
Selflessness
VS
Selfishness
It didnt occur to me until the next morning that the boy might have
burned the bread on purpose... Why would he have done it? He didnt
even know me. Still, just throwing me the bread was an enormous
kindness that would have surely resulted in a beating if discovered.
(p.32)
...even though theyre rattling on about the Games, its all about where
they were or what they were doing or how they felt when a specific
event occurred... Everything is about them, not the dying boys and girls
in the arena. (p. 354)
Gluttony
VS
Starvation
"Starvation's not an uncommon fate in District 12. Who hasn't seen the
victims? Older people who can't work. Children from a family wtih too
many to feed. Those injured in the mines... Starvation is never the cause
of death officially. It's always the flu, or exposure, or pneumonia. But that
fools no one." (p.28)
Integrity
VS
Dehumanisation
I dont know how to say it exactly. Only I want to die as myself. Does
that make any sense? I dont want them to change me in there. Turn
me into some kind of monster that Im not. (p. 141)
"He'll probably turn into one of those raging beast tributes, the kind who
tries to eat someone's heart after they've killed them. There was a guy
like that a few years ago from District 6 called Titus. He went completely
savage and the Gamemakers had to have him stunned with electric guns
to collect the bodies of the players he'd killed before he ate them."
(p.143)
Identity
VS
Manipulation
-When the time comes, I'm sure I'll kill just like everybody else...
Only I keep wishing I could think of a way to... to show the Capitol
they don't own me. That I'm more than just a piece in their Games.
But you are not None of us are. Thats how the games work."
(p.142)
Entertainment
VS
Morbidity
The cold would be torture enough, but the real nightmare is listening
to Cato, moaning, begging, and finally just whimpering as the mutts
work away at him
-Why dont they just kill him?- I ask Peeta
-You know why- , he says and I do. No viewer could turn away from
the show now. From the Gamemakers point of view, this is the final
word in entertainment (p.339)
Freedom
Vs
Surveillance
... As the needle inserts the metal tracking device deep under the skin on
the inside of my forearm. Now the Gamemakers will always be able to
trace my whereabouts in the arena. Wouldnt want to lose a tribute. ...
The only thing that distracts me is at all is the view from the windows as
we sail over the city and then to the wilderness beyond. This is what birds
see. Only theyre free and safe. The very opposite of me (p144)
Survival
Vs
Risk
As I go down to the stream to wash up, all I can think is that hes going
to die if I dont go to the feast...
If I dont make it back from the feast ... (p.278)
Freedom of Speech VS
Oppression
Propaganda
VS
Reality
Semiology
De Saussure (late 19th / early 20th century)
The association readers make between words and
concepts.
Narratology
Narrative structure Linear novel (with flashbacks)
Focaliser Katniss Everdeen (1st person narration)
Plot the series of events which take place.
Story what the reader makes of the plot:
how it fills the gaps of indeterminacy
how the schematta of the reader construes
meaning.
Todorov
Equilibrium
Disruption of equilibrium
Reintstatement of the
equilibrium
Return to District 12
GENDER STUDIES
Cultural Expectation Male / Female
Katniss: androginous.
Haymitch / Effie
Katniss / Peeta
President Snow
Katniss mum hysteria? Panick attacks?
Katniss / Clove (strength) the closest to kill her
Katniss / Thresh forgiving (weak?). Lets her live
POWER RELATIONS
Michael Foucault
Power
Gale
Sex
Peeta
Prim
Mother
Careers
District 12
District 11
Katniss
Cinna
Haymitch
President
Gamemakers
Snow
GENRE
Category of literary composition
HYBRID / YA
Dystopia
Apocalyptic
Literature
Romance
Fantasy
It is something about the dark world with a young hero that creates a fantastic image in
our heads, that a youth, a symbol for the future, is fighting in a crumbled age-old world.
They are faced with a task fixing the world that has tumbled to the ground because of
the neglect and wickedness of the adults. (Panem's dystopian history: the modern
young adult's world)
Romance
Feelings / deeds
Fantasy
Removed from reality
INTERTEXTUALITY
Julia Kristeva (1960s)
No text is unique
Mr. Darcys
Cofession
Elizabeths
Rejection
Peetas
Confession
Elizabeths
Repentance
Revelation
Moment
Katniss
Repentance
Katniss
Anger
Revelation
Moment
The Athenian tributes would certainly die after entering the labyrinth,
either at the hands of the Minotaur or by starvation.
In the Theseus myth, the threat of their children being selected kept
the Athenians in a constant state of fear.
Robin Hood
The lyrics were inspired by the civil rights movement in America; the
'blackbird' of the title was said to represent a typical woman facing
oppression in the era.
I had in mind a black woman, rather than a bird. Those were the
days of the civil rights movement, which all of us cared passionately
about, so this was really a song from me to a black woman,
experiencing these problems in the States: 'Let me encourage you to
keep trying, to keep your faith, there is hope.' As is often the case
with my things, a veiling took place so, rather than say 'Black woman
living in Little Rock' and be very specific, she became a bird, became
symbolic, so you could apply it to your particular problem. (Paul
McCartney -Many Years From Now, Barry Miles)
http://thehungergames.wikia.com/wiki/Flowers?file=
The-hunger-games-katniss-rue-death-flowers.jpg
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Collins, Suzanne The Hunger Games. New York:
Scholastic Press, 2008. Print
Austen, Jane Pride and Prejudice. London (1813):
Penguin Popular Classics, 1994. Print
Rowling, Joanne K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
New York: Levine Scholastic, 2000. Print
Lyons, John Introduction to Theoretical Linguistics.
London: Cambridge University Press, 1968. Print
Cuddon, J. A., Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary
Theory. London (Third edition 1992): Penguin Books
WEBLIOGRAPHY
Qs
and
As
with
Suzanne
Collins
available
at
http://www.scholastic.com/thehungergames/media/suzanne_collins_q_
and_a.pdf
Literary
Vocabulary
http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/lit_terms.html
available
at
Panems
Dystopian
Hystory
available
http://thehungergames347.blogspot.com.ar/2012/02/panemsdystopian-history.html
Peeta
and
the
Bread
of
Life
available
at
http://www.shepherdproject.com/the-hunger-games-peeta-and-thebread-of-life/
Divergent trailer
v=1miMuha7wXw
http://www.beatlesbible.com/songs/blackbird/
available
at
at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?