scholarly journals Hope and equilibrium in the dystopian world of The Hunger Games

2021 ◽  
Vol 85 ◽  
pp. 227-244
Author(s):  
María Sandra Peña-Cervel ◽  
Andreea Rosca

This paper provides evidence of the fruitfulness of combining analytical categories from Cognitive Linguistics and Critical Discourse Analysis for the analysis of complex literary characterizations. It does so through a detailed study of the “tributes”, i.e. the randomly selected children who have to fight to death in a nationally televised show, in The Hunger Games. The study proves the effectiveness of such categories to provide an analytically accurate picture of the dystopian world depicted in the novel, which is revealed to include a paradoxical element of hope. The type of dehumanization that characterizes the dystopian society of Panem is portrayed through an internally consistent set of ontological metaphors which project negative aspects of lower forms of existence onto people. This selection of metaphors promotes a biased perspective on the poor inhabitants of Panem, while legitimizing the social inequalities the wealthy Capitol works hard to immortalize. However, Katniss undergoes a metamorphosis through her discovery of her own identity, which hints at an emerging female empowerment. This transformation, together with her identification with the Mockingjay, a supernatural being that voices her beliefs and emotions, contributes to disrupting the status quo imposed by the almighty Gamemakers and to purveying a message of optimism.

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 92
Author(s):  
Mohamad Haj Mohamad

This paper attempts an examination of the concept of the mechanism of power in Suzanne Collins’ trilogy The Hunger Games. The author conducts an analytical approach to the way power is practiced, the measure that helps establish a clandestine of power relations affecting people’s life, mentality of thinking, politics and even economy.The introduction delves to present a definition of power and its concept and how it gets activated and why. Power, according to Collins is the backbone and even the elixir of life upon which the very survival of the authoritarian state headed by President Snow depends. The paper goes on to explicate the need for keeping power in place to secure the government’s grip on power. Mechanism of power as shown in the novel works on so many levels. Divide and rule marks the first and most necessary and effective means as a divisive policy aiming at preventing any potential unity among people who might employ this unity to rise up against the totalitarian government. Media and sport and economic factors are used effectively to ensure government’s control on man’s mind, body and soul and intimidate them whenever needed. Collins presents power and its mechanism as the sole relation between people and government in the novel. Absence of democratic rule in Panem, or, American states, leaves power as the only means to describe the social bond between man and state, a bond that is unilaterally respected and practiced.


Lexicon ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Farhani Nurhusna

The use of sentence fragments is generally discouraged in good English writing because they lack one or more essential components of a sentence, namely a subject and/or a predicate, and thus are grammatically unacceptable. However in fiction writing, the use of sentence fragments is not only quite common in dialogue, but in narration as well. The present study analyses sentence fragments in the narration of the first novel of the young-adult science-fiction trilogy The Hunger Games written by Suzanne Collins, to investigate the types of fragments employed in the novel and their classification based on syntactic structure in the form of dependent-clause fragments and phrase fragments. The sentence fragments were further analysed for their use based on the context of their preceding sentences. The use of sentence fragments in the novel basically serves the function of creating emphasis or stressing important points in the story.


2007 ◽  
Vol 35 (103) ◽  
pp. 108-137
Author(s):  
Carsten Sestoft

Romanens status i det 17. århundredes Frankrig The hesitations of a genre: The status of the novel in seventeenth-century FranceIn answering the question: What was the novel in seventeenth-century France? – this article provides insight into some important points of the early history of the genre. The contradiction between its non-existence in official (Aristotelian) poetics and its existence as a popular commodity on the book market was, in the course of the seventeenth century, reconciled in the emergent category of belles lettres as a plurality of genres mainly defined by their public of honnêtes gens, while attempts at legitimizing the novel as belonging to such Aristotelian genres as epic or history generally failed; and at the end of the century a number of convergences – between epic and novel, between the designations roman and nouvelle, and between the ‘high’ and ‘low’ forms of the novel – seem to point to the fact that the social existence of the genre had been strengthened, even if it was the English novel of the eighteenth century that could be said to reap the profits of this stronger position. Using historical semantics and cultural sociology to study the status of the novel in seventeenth-century France thus leads to a clearer understanding of the specificity of the novel as a literary and cultural genre.


2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-42
Author(s):  
Isabelle Génin

The article discusses the interaction between reading and translating, in the case of the first unabridged translation of Moby-Dick into French by Jean Giono, Lucien Jacques and Joan Smith, published by Gallimard in 1941. After a brief survey of the status of that translation—an important cultural landmark in France—the paper examines what the paratext (Giono’s diary, notes and letters) and the typescripts reveal about a seemingly paradoxical situation: Giono’s keen reading of Moby-Dick on the one hand and the simplification and clarification strategies adopted in the translation on the other hand. A selection of stylistic analyses illustrates both the choices made by the translators and the part played by each participant in the project. It appears that Giono did not necessarily misread Moby-Dick, underestimating its scope and significance. Instead, after reading the novel, he grew indifferent to its translation and concentrated his energy on his own writing in which he re-invested his reading experience. As to the other co-translators, Joan Smith provided a word-for-word translation of the text that made no attempt at interpreting the text, while Lucien Jacques strove to re-write Smith’s literal first draft, in spite of his difficult position as a non-reader (albeit an enthusiastic one) of Moby-Dick.


2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 387-408 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juha Klemelä

Purpose The Social Return on Investment (SROI) framework has been developed for mapping and measuring social impact. It may be used for legitimating organisations and projects. The framework is often criticised for its overemphasis of the SROI ratio, i.e. the relationship between monetised benefits and costs. This study aims to demonstrate how the SROI method legitimates organisations or projects with multiple other discursive ways besides the SROI ratio. It also discusses the status of these other ways of legitimation in relation to the quantifying and monetising core tendency of SROI. Design/methodology/approach The empirical data consist of an SROI guidebook and 12 SROI reports. Their study applies Theo van Leeuwen’s ideas for analysing the discursive legitimation of social practices. The study takes place broadly in the framework of Norman Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis, aided by qualitative content analysis. Findings In the analysis, the full spectrum of the van Leeuwenian legitimation means used by SROI – authorisation, rationalisation, moral evaluation and mythopoetical narration – is brought out in the data and the status and social context of the legitimation means are assessed and discussed. It is shown that there is existing potential for broader and more visible use of different legitimation means. Practical implications Based on the findings of the study, suggestions for the improvement of SROI reporting by a more balanced explicit use of the multitude of legitimation means are presented. Originality/value The study is original both in its subject (the spectrum of legitimation in SROI) and its method (qualitative discursive and contentual analysis of SROI as a legitimating discourse).


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 27
Author(s):  
Ni Ketut Veri Kusumaningrum ◽  
I Wayan Rasna ◽  
Gde Artawan

This research aims to determine (1) the narrative structure of novel Nayla by Djenar Maesa Ayu, (2) the role of women figure in the novel Nayla by Djenar Maesa Ayu, (3) the struggle of women figure in the novel Nayla by Djenar Maesa Ayu. This research uses feminism study with qualitative research. The data was collected by using library research. The library method was used at finding out the data in the novel Nayla by Djenar Maesa Ayu and in other literature which supports this research. The analyzed data are narrative structure, the role of women figure and the struggle of women figure in the novel Nayla by Djenar Maesa Ayu. The data were analyzed through the stage of reduction, presentation and data collection. The subject of this research is the novel Nayla by Djenar Maesa Ayu, the object of this research is the narrative structure, the role of women figure and the struggle of women figure in the novel Nayla by Djenar Maesa Ayu. The result of this research refers to (1) The Narrative structure in the novel Nayla by Djenar Maesa Ayu was include figure, characterization, plot and background. (2) The role of women figure in the novel Nayla by Djenar Maesa Ayu was found in the social domain, domestic and public. (3) The struggle of women figure in the novel Nayla by Djenar Maesa Ayu was manifested by struggling in maintaining in the status as women, the struggle in maintaining the gender. The form of feminism was described in the novel Nayla as never surrender, not dependent to the parents, and behaves deviate. Novel Nayla to present the relationship of gender that leads to a superior. Novel Nayla as the main character show business to make a women who has the dignity of which is equivalent to the men. Based on the results of analysis and advice for women in order to improve the quality of the field of education, domestic, and the public so that gender equality can be achieved.


Author(s):  
Aidatul Chusna ◽  
Lynda Susana W.A.F.

This research is aimed at revealing the new image of American popular heroes as depicted in the novel adaptation film of The Hunger Games which is created as a trilogy, which consists of two more novels: Catching Fire and Mockingjay. This film is one of the most phenomenal films in 2013-2104, which grossed out up to $407,999,255. This research used textual approach, which focused on the text as the object, that is The Hunger Games film. The result shows that The Hunger Games essentially brings the issue of slavery back into scrutiny. However, the creation of the heroin in the film is granted as the reconstruction of popular heroes in America. She is an inspiring female hero which is exemplified as the appreciation of womens values. Yet, the heroin is broadly defined with the qualities of rouge heroes as the characteristics are the representation of the belief and values associated with freedom to wash away the oppression restore the rights of the minority. In addition to the issue of slavery , the symbols of new hope and new spirit are implicitly emerged in the story. This attempt was proficiently done by the heroin, which was eventually created as the new image of the American heroes.


2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 346-370
Author(s):  
Anthony Fucci ◽  
Theresa Catalano

Abstract On August 25, 2017, student members of Turning Point USA (TPUSA), a right-wing conservative organization who advocates for smaller government and free market enterprise, recruited on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) campus. Members of the UNL community protested nearby. Part of the protest was recorded on video and released to social media leading to harsh public criticism that accused the university of restricting free speech and being an unsafe environment for conservative students. Drawing on cognitive linguistics (e.g. metonymy, framing) and multimodal critical discourse analysis (MCDA), this paper explores how the TPUSA incident at UNL was recontextualized in local and national media discourse, the ways in which the social actors and events were framed, and its consequences. The authors show how these representations reinforce dominant neoliberal discourses (which correlate with right-wing discourses) that negatively impact public education, providing a necessary counter to a populist political climate in which anti-intellectualism reigns.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isobel Azani Heck ◽  
Tamar Kushnir ◽  
Katherine Kinzler

We tested whether preschool-aged children (N = 280) track an agents’ choices of individuals from novel social groups (i.e., social choices) to infer an agent’s social preferences and the social status of the groups. Across experiments, children saw a box containing two groups (red and blue toy cats). In Experiment 1, children were randomly assigned to Social Selection in which items were described as “friends” or to Object Selection in which items were described as “toys.” Within each selection type, the agent selected five items from either a numerically common group (82% of box; selections appearing random) or a numerically rare group (18% of box; selections violating random sampling). After watching these selections, children were asked who the agent would play with among three individuals: one from the selected group, one from the unselected group, or one from a novel group. Only participants who viewed Social Selection of a numerically rare group predicted that the agent would select an individual from that group in the future. These participants also said an individual from the selected group was the “leader.” Subsequent experiments further probed the Social Selection findings. Children’s reasoning depended on the agent actively selecting the “friends” (Experiment 2) and children thought a member of the rare selected group was the “leader” but not the “helper” (Experiment 3). These results illustrate that children track an agent’s positive social choices to reason about that agent’s social preferences and to infer the status (likelihood of being a “leader”) of novel social groups.


Two Homelands ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (54) ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Della Puppa ◽  
Fabio Perocco

Deriving from multiple ecological-social causes, the novel coronavirus and, subsequently, the COVID-19 pandemic, has affected all spheres of societies of the world. The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered and amplified an economic crisis that existed before the health crisis. The combination of the two crises into a double “ecological-­healthcare” and “socio-economic” crisis has had multiple consequences for everyone on the economic, social, political, and cultural level; however, it has affected social classes, workers, genders, and territories in different ways, deepening social inequalities and worsening the social conditions of disadvantaged social groups: among the most affected social groups, we find migrants.


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