The Makings of a Contradictory Franchise: Revolutionary Melodrama and Cynicism in The Hunger Games

Author(s)
Tompkins, Joe
Date Issued
October 12, 2018
Abstract
This article examines The Hunger Games franchise (THG) as a case study for how capitalist media cynically mobilize revolutionary desire as a commercial strategy. It integrates ideology critique and media-industry analysis to examine THG as a melodramatic fantasy that, on the one hand, bids spectators to enjoy the act of desiring class revolution in the films while, on the other hand, deploying various textual and paratextual strategies that invite audiences to be cynical about such desire. As such, THG epitomizes the contradictions of spectacular “revolution”: asking viewers to simultaneously buy into and deconstruct the mediated pleasures of class war.
Journal
JCMS: Journal of Cinema and Media Studies
Department
Communication Arts & Theatre
Community & Justice Studies
Citation
Tompkins, Joe. "The Makings of a Contradictory Franchise: Revolutionary Melodrama and Cynicism in The Hunger Games." JCMS: Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, vol. 58 no. 1, 2018, pp. 70-90. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/cj.2018.0071
Publisher
University of Texas Press
Version of Article
Published article
Embargo
This version of the article is available for viewing to the public after April 12, 2019.
DOI
10.1353/cj.2018.0071
ISSN
2578-4900
2578-4919
Subjects

Capitalism

Class revolution

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