The Makings of a Contradictory Franchise: Revolutionary Melodrama and Cynicism in The Hunger Games
Project Author
Issue Date
2018-10-12
Authors
Tompkins, Joe
Loading...
Embargo
This version of the article is available for viewing to the public after April 12, 2019.
First Reader
Additional Readers
Keywords
Capitalism , Class revolution
Distribution
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.
Description
Chair
Major
Department
Communication Arts & Theatre
Community & Justice Studies
Community & Justice Studies
Recorder
License
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
Version
Published article
Honors
Publisher
University of Texas Press