1.

INTRODUCTION
If you look into the dark long enough, there is always something there. - W. B. Yeats
Literature has always been a coping mechanism for humans when they come across
anything that ails or influences their lives in any way. Humans, as socially constructed
subjects, live in societies by their free will, but under the pretences that they are free to live
and let live. Now more than ever before, the media controls almost every aspect of the human
life. Literature reflects current trends like these.
Voices of Young Adult fantasy fiction writers have not quite been heard until recently,
at least in the eyes of the mainstream society. Despite the lack of Y.A. literary voices
throughout literary theory and criticism, Y.A. literature has been steadily growing and
flourishing for decades. There is one particularly important voice talking to us from within a
dystopian surrounding, that of Suzanne Collins through her Hunger Games trilogy, which
tackles a myriad of themes. Dystopian literature, which will be briefly discussed in the thesis,
and for further notice seen as a subcategory of Y.A. literature, has flourished in works of
contemporary writers and constitutes an integral part of most of the popular works today.
Those are some of the issues that will be briefly explored in this thesis.
The main focus will be on how the spectacle is reflected in a capitalist society in the
midst of class divisions and inequality. This work will provide an overview of the above
mentioned which requires a brief presentation of the influential analysis of the spectacle by
Debord and how this work builds upon his approach. Moreover, light will be shed on the
proposition of how the spectacle can be viewed in terms of a postmodern concept called the
simulacra and what crucial role it can play when discussing grand narratives.
Thus, the thesis attempts to illuminate key features of The Hunger Games trilogy and
draw attention to the dynamics of the present age, focusing on the notion of the spectacle as a
prevalent motif within both Marxist and Postmodern literary theories. The author attempts to
reveal the possible influence of the spectacle on the contemporary condition and discern what
it discloses, throughout the series, about what the modern society could become if some
aspects of contemporary society remain unchecked. The thesis attempts to show the
mainstream society the true nature of what it is like to live in the society of the spectacle and
to what that society could evolve.
The aim is to interpret and contextualize the previously mentioned phenomena of the
spectacle through a close reading of the text and provide a window into pressing questions of
the contemporary society. According to Kellner (2003: 27), Media spectacle provides a

fertile ground for interpreting and understanding contemporary culture and society because
the major spectacles provide articulations of salient hopes and fears, fantasies and obsessions,
and experiences of the present. This reference is a reminder that Young Adult Fiction can
serve as a mirror of our present or recent past actions, socio-political changes or even as a
glimpse in a not so distant future.
The Hunger Games books will not be analyzed separately. Examples and quotes taken
from all three books will match the topic that permeates the said books and is the focus of a
chosen chapter. Therefore, there is no linear way to list all the topics as they spread
throughout the books. The importance of the topics lies in their universality, as will be
presented in this thesis. In order to examine these issues, it is important to place the literature
in context. The introductory chapters thus offer an overview of the history of Y.A. fantasy
fiction, etymology, the importance and brief data on its ever growing popularity, while placing
the genre within a narrower focus of dystopian surroundings, which the following chapters
will also elucidate.
All in all, the causes and consequences of the spectacle need to be understood in order
to be resisted and so as to resist the gaze of the oppressing eye that contemporary societies
are now facing. Readers should be vary of the possibility that their lives could become a
simulacrum in a hopeless dystopian surrounding under the watchful eye of the spectacle.
There is an ever growing need to understand the world. Thus, May the odds be, ever in your
favour! (Collins 2008: 23).