The hunger games: a dystopian, intertextual and symbolic world

Abstract

In recent years the success of children's and youth literature has passed from book covers to the big screen. These adaptations have become box-office hits and socio-cultural phenomena. Some examples are Harry Potter (2001), The Chronicles of Narnia (2005), Twilight (2008) or, more recently, The Hunger Games (2012). This analysis focuses on the trilogy The Hunger Games, written by Suzanne Collins and comprised of The Hunger Games, Catching Fireand Mockingjay. The trilogy presents a view of the world in a future time in which, after a civil war, the inhabitants of the fictitious Panem live under the oppression of a dictatorship. This study includes an analysis of intertextuality in The Hunger Games, particularly in its audiovisual adaptation, as well as an analysis of the allusions to the classics, war and "reality TV' by means of the characters, their names and dystopia.