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THE HUNGER GAMES

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)

She was trained in sword-fighting


(some of) The books she read
Nineteen Eighty Four by George Orwell
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury

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

WTC - War on terror - Afghanistan

2002
Iraq WMD Anti-war movement
2004
Bush reelected

Facebook
2005

Housing Bubble bursts

Youtube
2006
Blu Ray

Depression GM / Banks
2007
Virginia Tech Massacre

N Pelossi 1st fem. spkt of US H of R

2008
Barack Obama elected president

Context of Reception
Fish Reader - response

Interpretive Community

Shapes our reading of the text


Western system of beliefs reason, civilisation, progress,
science,
men,
whiteness,
Anglo/Euro-centrism,
Christianity, capitalism, youth.
Latin America, Buenos Aires suburbs, academic context,
teacher training college, debate moderated by someone in
power (interpellating us by book choice).

My reception of the text


Female, 28 year-old student, middle-class.
Accessibility Best Seller
Ethinicity Rue dies Afro-American
Cinna different from Capitol
Peeta

Conflictive figure

Catching Fire / Mockingjay

Le Non-Dit holes, absences, ellipsis.


Katniss-Peeta / Katniss-Gale
Gale.The idea of seeing Gale in a matter of hours makes my stomach churn.
But why? I cant quite frame it in my mind. I only know that I feel like Ive been
lying to someone who trusts me. Or more accurately, to two people. Ive been
getting away with it up to this point because of the Games. But there will be no
Games to hide behind back home (p.371)
And its not just that I dont want to be alone. Its him. I dont want to lose the
boy with the bread (p. 297)

Can they control her nightmares?


How many ways do I watch Prim die? Relive my fathers last moments? Feel my own
body ripped apart? This is the nature of the tracker jacker venom, so carefully created to
target the place where fear lives in your brain. (p.195)

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)

Rebellion of the Districts against the Capitol


Hunger Games. = 9/11 War on Terror.
Taking the kids from our districts, forcing them to kill one another while we
watch this is the Capitols way of reminding us how totally we are at their
mercy. How little chance we would stand of surviving another rebellion (p.18)

The Reaping Hitlers Youth


The exceptions are the kids from the wealthier districts, the volunteers, the
ones who have been fed and trained throughout their lives for this moment
(p.94)

The Draft
"The reaping is a good opportunity for the Capitol to keep tabs on the

population as well. Twelve-to eighteen-year-olds are herded into roped areas


marked off by ages" (p.19)

13 Districts = 13 colonies
The Anthem = The Flag

Context of Culture

Panem is what remains of North America

District 12: Appalachia / Rocky Mountains

Dystopia

Dictatorial regime

Post-apocalyptic country

Fractured society (Capitol Districts)

Intra-district sense of belonging

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

Ideas which conflict give meaning to the text

Binary Oppositions are the pillars on which the


meaning of a text is based

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)

...the capitol... The cameras havent lied about its grandeur...they


have not quite captured the magnificence of the glistening buildings
in a rainbow of hues that tower into the air, the shiny cars that roll
down the wide paved streets, the oddly dressed people with bizarre
hair and painted faces who have never missed a meal (p. 59)
Our part of District 12, nicknamed the Seam is usually crawling with
coal miners heading out to their morning shift at this hour.Men and
women with hunched shoulders, swollen knuckles, many who have
long since stopped trying to scrub the coal dust out of their broken
nails, the lines of their sunken faces. But today the black cinder
streets are empty. Shutters on the squat grey houses are closed
(p.4)

Consumerism

VS

Deprivation

What must it be like, I wonder, to live in a world where food appears at


the press of a button? How would I spend the hours I now commit to
combing the woods for sustenance if it were so easy to come by? What
do they do all day, these people in the Capitol, besides decorating their
bodies and waiting around for a new shipment of tributes to roll in and die
for their entertainment? (p. 65)

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

Somewhere, in a cool and spotless room,a Gamemaker sits at a set of


controls, fingers on the triggers that could end my life in a second. All
that is needed is a direct hit. (p.175)
(After finding out about Rues death in Katniss Arms. Thresh to Katniss)
Just this one time I let you go. For the little girl... (p. 288)

Communication
Connection

VS

Broadcasting
Isolation

Its interesting hearing about her life. We have so little communication


with anyone outside our district. In fact, I wonder if the Gamemakers are
blocking out our conversation, because even though the information
seems harmless, they dont want people in different districts to know
about one another. (p.283)
... Travel between the districts is forbidden... (p.41)
Caesar Flickerman makes a few more jokes, and then its time for the
show. This will last exactly three hours and is required viewing for all of
Panem (p.362)

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

The moment I slide into my chair Im served an enormous platter of


food. Eggs, ham, piles of fried potatoes. A tureen of fruits sits in ice to
keep it chilled. The basket of rolls they put before me would keep my
family going for a week. (p.55)

"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

"When I was younger, I scared my mother to death, the things I would


blurt out about District 12, about the people who rule our country, Panem,
from the far-off city called the Capitol. Eventually I understood this would
only lead us to more trouble. So I learned to hold my tongue and to turn
my features into an indifferent maskso that no one could ever read my
thoughts" (p.6)

Propaganda

VS

Reality

Clearly seen in:


The makeovers the tributes go through before being sent to the Arena.
The paraphernalia that surrounds The Hunger Games and The Capitol
in general
How the government decides what to show and not to show (Rues
death)

Semiology
De Saussure (late 19th / early 20th century)
The association readers make between words and
concepts.

Bread: life / purity


Dandelions / Nature: Hope
Fire: hope / passion / life
Bow: control
District 12: doom / poverty
Capitol: shallowness / wealth
Hunger: Oppression
Food: power
Woods: freedom / happiness
Lake / Water: life

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

Life in District 12,


previous to The Games

Disruption of equilibrium

Reaping. The Games

Recognition of disruption Rues death


Attempt to repair the
disruption

Form Rues death up to


nightlock

Reintstatement of the
equilibrium

Return to District 12

GENDER STUDIES
Cultural Expectation Male / Female
Katniss: androginous.

She is an attractive woman but she has been


father, provider.
Refusal to marry / have kids

Masquerades during The Games

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

Shifts: no person holds power indefinitely

Is exerted through discourse: it has the


power to exclude and include things

Is exerted through the gaze

Regulates human relationships

Sex

Is not exerted to-down: its everywhere, it


comes from everywhere

Interpellation (Louis Althusser)


respond negotiate - resist

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

Dystopia / Apocalyptic Literature (Young Adult)

Prophetic or quasi prophetic writings


Doomed version of mankinds destiny dystopian fiction as social criticism.
Totalitarian vein
dystopian thinking relies on a critique of perceived "deficiencies in the
future

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

Suggests elements of love, adventure, fantasy, improbability,


extravagance and naivety.

Generally composed of invincible courages of heroes and heroins

Feelings / deeds

Fantasy
Removed from reality

Set in alternative versions of the historical world

The characters are often something other than humans /


human characters interact with nonhuman characters

INTERTEXTUALITY
Julia Kristeva (1960s)

No text is unique

A text is original because it gives origin to.

Texts talk to one another.

Whenever I am in contact with a text there are always elements that


connect it to another one.

Peeta as a Christ Image Bread-giving


Peeta saw the signs of starvation and hopelessness in Katniss. He had
compassion on her. He knew that if he didnt do something, she (and her
family) would die. So, he sacrificed himself to give life-saving bread to
Katniss. He knew what it was going to cost himhe knew his mother
wouldnt approve. But he willingly took that beating from his mother, from
someone he loved, so that he could offer food, salvation and hope to
Katniss... Peeta paid for that bread that he gave to Katniss with his own
flesh. He paid for it when he took that beating. (Tuttle, S.)

Peetas love for Katniss


4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not
proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily
angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but
rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes,
always perseveres. (1 Cor. 13 New Revised Standard Version)

Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)


Katniss and Elizabeth share personality traits (they are both independent, decisive,
and straightforward)
The cycle both (Katniss and Elizabeth) go through

Mr. Darcys
Cofession

Elizabeths
Rejection

Peetas
Confession

Elizabeths
Repentance

Revelation
Moment

Katniss
Repentance

Katniss
Anger

Revelation
Moment

Divergent (Veronica Roth)

Theseus and the Minotaur

Minos, King of Crete Tributes to fight at Knossos (because of


rebellion)

The labyrinth of Knossos strongly resembles the arena

The tributes are trapped in the arena, with no means of escape, in


the exact same circumstances as the Athenian youths stranded in the
labyrinth.

Theseus volunteers to go into the labyrinth, and successfully slays


the Minotaur to become the savior of Athens.

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

Fight / Hunt for their people


Defy authorities
Woods represent hope
Love story

Blackbird (by Paul Mc Cartney)

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.

Written by: Lennon-McCartney


Recorded: 11 June 1968
Released: 22 November 1968 (UK), 25 November 1968 (US)

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)

"Blackbird (The Beatles)


Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise.
Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these sunken eyes and learn to see
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to be free.
Blackbird fly Blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark black night.
Blackbird fly Blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark black night.
Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise
You were only waiting for this moment to arise
You were only waiting for this moment to arise.

http://thehungergames.wikia.com/wiki/Flowers?file=
The-hunger-games-katniss-rue-death-flowers.jpg

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire


You take it, you should win
"Both of us," Harry said.
"What?"
"We'll take it at the same time. It's still a Hogwarts victory. We'll tie for
it."
Cedric stared at Harry. He unfolded his arms.
"You you sure?"
"Yeah," said Harry. "Yeah we've helped each other out, haven't we?
We both got here. Let's just take it together."
For a moment, Cedric looked as though he couldn't believe his ears;
then his face split into a grin.
"You're on," he said. "Come here."
He grabbed Harrys arm below the shoulder and helped Harry limp
toward the plinth where the cup stood. When they had reached it, they
both held a hand out over one of the cup's gleaming handles.
"On three, right?" Harry said. "One two three "
Cedric and Harry both grasped a handle. (Harry Potter and The Goblet
of Fire)

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

The Hunger Games: An Apocalyptic Future availabe at


https://sites.google.com/a/depauw.edu/apocalypse-the-hunger-games/a
uthor

Qs
and
As
with
Suzanne
Collins
available
at
http://www.scholastic.com/thehungergames/media/suzanne_collins_q_
and_a.pdf

Baudrillards Hunger Games available at http://www.ubishops.ca

Whats behind the boom in dystopian fiction for young readers?


http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2010/06/14/100614crat_a
tlarge_miller

McGunigal, Mary, A Literary Criticism of the Classical Themes and


Allusions Found in The Hunger Games (2012). Senior HonorsProjects.
Paper 298. Available at http://digitalcommons.uri.edu/srhonorsprog/298

Literary
Vocabulary
http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/lit_terms.html

available

at

Events that shaped the US in the past decade (2000-2010) available


at
http://www.ibtimes.com/events-shaped-us-past-decade-20002010-part-1-3-252111

Politics, Entertainment and Deeper Meanings of the Hunger Games


available at http://instructors.dwrl.utexas.edu/schneider/node/458

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/

Everything I Do I Do It For You by Brian Adams available at


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGoWtY_h4xo

available

at

at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?

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