Abstract
This chapter explores the positive characterization of Peeta Mellark from the well-known Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins. It proposes that war fiction and romance play a key role in shaping Peeta’s traits as a pioneering hero that represents a detoxed form of masculinity. While the inversion/subversion of Peeta’s conventional male characteristics has been widely explored, the role of genre in making possible such a configuration has not been sufficiently analyzed. Taking this into account, the chapter explores the way in which genre aids in the construction of an untraditional hero, alternative to hegemonic masculinity, and suggests that both romance and war fiction are crucial for this construction.
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Notes
- 1.
Two women “battle for supremacy”, finding womanhood in nature; woman falls in love with an aristocrat but is obliged to go to war; poetess’s death by drinking; elder woman seduces young man; “Alexandra the Great”; man “loses masculinity” and ends up neurotic and alone; narcissistic and sensual young man is raped by women admirers (1995: 80). Even though men lead the last two plots, contrary to Russ’s statement quoted above, they serve as inversions of plots usually headed by women.
- 2.
For example, see Pamela Sargent’s 1975 anthology Women of Wonder.
- 3.
Along the trilogy, and especially in the first volume, Katniss wonders what Gale may be thinking about her and Peeta, which signifies that she is interested in Gale as a man: “Gale’s not my boyfriend, but would he be, if I opened that door? (…) I wonder what he makes of all this kissing” (Collins 2008: 341).
- 4.
Peeta lost his limb in the 74th Games, but his disability is ignored in the films.
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Novell, N. (2023). A Lover Boy with Battle Scars: Romance, War Fiction, and the Construction of Peeta Mellark as a Good Man in The Hunger Games Trilogy. In: Martín, S., Santaulària, M.I. (eds) Detoxing Masculinity in Anglophone Literature and Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-22144-6_10
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