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the contemporary postfeminist dystopia: disruptions and hopeful gestures in Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games

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Feminist Review

abstract

Through an analysis of Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games trilogy (2008, 2009, 2010), this text will consider the ways in which contemporary postfeminism can be read as a dystopic narrative. The protagonist of the novel (and the rest of the trilogy) is Katniss Everdeen, a young woman who through an ethics of care, disruption of the heteronormative script, and a critical posthuman embodiment offers an alternative to the dystopic present offered by postfeminism. In Katniss’ dystopian world, Collins constructs a narrative that highlights the continued need for a feminist politics of engagement and activism that works against claims for neo-liberal individualism.

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Notes

  1. I would like to thank the peer reviewer who offered this valuable insight.

  2. The implications of the heteronormative ending are myriad and beyond the scope of this paper. It is worth mentioning that at the end of the novel, Katniss remains deeply ambivalent about the relationship and having children, and it is not represented as a typical romantic ‘marriage plot’.

  3. The Hunger Games (2012) directed by Gary Ross and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013), The Hunger Games: Mockingjay—Part 1 (2014) and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay—Part 2 (2015) directed by Francis Lawrence.

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acknowledgements

The research for this paper was undertaken with funding from the Spanish Ministry for Economy, Industry and Competitiveness for the research project Bodies in Transit/Cuerpos en Tránsito (refs. FFI2013-47789-C2-1-P).

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  1. Edifici Mediterrani, c/Rocafort, 104, 08015, Barcelona, Spain

    Andrea Ruthven

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Ruthven, A. the contemporary postfeminist dystopia: disruptions and hopeful gestures in Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games . Fem Rev 116, 47–62 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41305-017-0064-9

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