With the growth of awareness to environmental and ecological crises in the past two decades, fungi have earned an important place in fiction and film narratives dramatizing the danger that awaits humanity. Fungi are often used to... more
With the growth of awareness to environmental and ecological crises in the past two decades, fungi have earned an important place in fiction and film narratives dramatizing the danger that awaits humanity. Fungi are often used to emphasize parasitism as horroristic and lethal, to envision an epidemic that may turn global and have apocalyptic dimensions, especially in the form of zombie narratives. As much as Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Mexican Gothic may stem from this renewed interest in the possibly dangerous fungus world, it also heavily relies on fungi’s role in Mexican culture and the Gothic tradition that has a special interest in the domestic, in the oppressed female in a patriarchal world, and in the theme of insanity. Combining these components in her modern Gothic novel, Moreno-Garcia reconsiders the relationship between the non-human and the human. At first sight her approach does not have much to do with zombie narratives, but I argue that her domestic narrative utilizes features of zombie-fiction on the domestic scale, and this contributes to interpreting the patriarch character—who is a fungus-human hybrid—of the novel as a death god. Moreno-Garcia features the co-existence of a certain fungus and a family that is able to make use of this symbiosis as a means of turning the human into divine-like. However, such a representation of the divine still revolves around the idea of death. Firstly, this god may gain a renewed, reincarnated life at the expense of many deaths that are the result of an incompatibility with the fungus and he also must regularly die in order to regenerate; secondly, this god, while having a firm belief in his own superiority within the human race, is presented as someone in whom human nature (that is, an empathetic and sensible existence) has died, which in the protagonist’s interpretation makes the patriarch of the family subhuman despite his superhuman power to conquer death; thirdly, this god-like patriarch drains life out of his family on the metaphorical level, too, making his family members his zombie-like servants, who must sacrifice their right to have a desirably average human life in order to maintain a falsely interpreted family privilege dependent on their pater familiaris’s ability to continue living. The death figure in Mexican Gothic thematizes one’s relation to the past, criticizing a parasitic, unhealthy relationship when clinging to the past deforms the mentality of the people (much the same way as we may see in emblematic works on the American South that underline the Southern community’s unhealthy attachment to the past). Here the setting of the story emphasizes a tension between a modern, open and feminist mindset (represented by the female protagonist) and the insane, patriarchal, closed mindset of a community that is the result of inbreeding.
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Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games trilogy and M. R. Carey's The Girl with All the Gifts both rely on the concept of last hope embodied by a teenager, but they interpret hope in fundamentally different ways because of the world the... more
Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games trilogy and M. R. Carey's The Girl with All the Gifts both rely on the concept of last hope embodied by a teenager, but they interpret hope in fundamentally different ways because of the world the stories are set in.
In Collins's fictional world, the Hunger Games are organized around the idea of tying together the deaths of many and the survival of one from many, suggesting that one person's annual, symbolic triumph over death may ensure hope for survival even in the harshest circumstances; such an arrangement, however, also reveals the reality that allows a person to hope for no more. When thanks to Katniss and Peeta's shared victory hope becomes extended and promises change instead of mere survival, being the last person to survive in the arena becomes a symbolic role that helps a whole society return to a more democratic politics and discard the artificial lifestyle of the Capitol. The Hunger Games series focuses on the context of politics, and as politics has its foundations in theatricality/performance/deception/artificiality the annual Games are like yearly, symbolic performances of Panem's everyday reality. The Games are thus repeatable; and from this characteristic it follows that the Games may prove educational and produce sooner or later someone who understands their logic well enough to fight them successfully. As long as the primary context is politics, therefore, human relations and interactions are put in the limelight and educate us about opportunities to take to reorganize ourselves as a human community.
However, when society is positioned in a world where the fight is not between two groups of humans but between humans and a world that threatens with humanity's extinction, the whole world becomes an arena—and the fight in it is unrepeatable. The last girl, in this context, signifies hope of various kinds: Melanie's body is a hope for medicine to stop humanity's zombification and to return to “normalcy”, a state of the world before the zombies appeared; but instead Melanie chooses to reinterpret hope from a posthuman position, discarding the anthropocentric view that Collins's fiction maintains. In the two works we may find several common motifs and themes, including the themes of people's disrespect for nature, the transformation of the human body and humanity, children's suffering for their parents' sins, the extended family, the motif of the arena that highlights how hope is a death and life question in the world where these characters try to survive, and even the theme of monsterization/zombification. In my paper I am going to focus on comparing how these themes and motifs emerge, how they reflect on the contemporary world that these works project onto imaginary ones, and how the similarities and the distinction in what these themes and motifs display depend on the girl who embodies last hope.
In Collins's fictional world, the Hunger Games are organized around the idea of tying together the deaths of many and the survival of one from many, suggesting that one person's annual, symbolic triumph over death may ensure hope for survival even in the harshest circumstances; such an arrangement, however, also reveals the reality that allows a person to hope for no more. When thanks to Katniss and Peeta's shared victory hope becomes extended and promises change instead of mere survival, being the last person to survive in the arena becomes a symbolic role that helps a whole society return to a more democratic politics and discard the artificial lifestyle of the Capitol. The Hunger Games series focuses on the context of politics, and as politics has its foundations in theatricality/performance/deception/artificiality the annual Games are like yearly, symbolic performances of Panem's everyday reality. The Games are thus repeatable; and from this characteristic it follows that the Games may prove educational and produce sooner or later someone who understands their logic well enough to fight them successfully. As long as the primary context is politics, therefore, human relations and interactions are put in the limelight and educate us about opportunities to take to reorganize ourselves as a human community.
However, when society is positioned in a world where the fight is not between two groups of humans but between humans and a world that threatens with humanity's extinction, the whole world becomes an arena—and the fight in it is unrepeatable. The last girl, in this context, signifies hope of various kinds: Melanie's body is a hope for medicine to stop humanity's zombification and to return to “normalcy”, a state of the world before the zombies appeared; but instead Melanie chooses to reinterpret hope from a posthuman position, discarding the anthropocentric view that Collins's fiction maintains. In the two works we may find several common motifs and themes, including the themes of people's disrespect for nature, the transformation of the human body and humanity, children's suffering for their parents' sins, the extended family, the motif of the arena that highlights how hope is a death and life question in the world where these characters try to survive, and even the theme of monsterization/zombification. In my paper I am going to focus on comparing how these themes and motifs emerge, how they reflect on the contemporary world that these works project onto imaginary ones, and how the similarities and the distinction in what these themes and motifs display depend on the girl who embodies last hope.
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Az elkerítés, a körbezárás igen komplex formában jelenik meg a The Last of Us (2023 – ) című HBO filmsorozatban, amely messze túlmutat az immunrendszer metaforikus ábrázolásán, és a medikális aspektuson túl egyfajta látleletet ad az egész... more
Az elkerítés, a körbezárás igen komplex formában jelenik meg a The Last of Us (2023 – ) című HBO filmsorozatban, amely messze túlmutat az immunrendszer metaforikus ábrázolásán, és a medikális aspektuson túl egyfajta látleletet ad az egész emberiség morális állapotáról is. A lineáris narrációt megtörő cirkularitás segít megérteni azt a fajta jövőképet, amellyel a sorozat szembesít minket. Cikkemben azt mutatom be, hogy a sorozat zombijainak jellegzetességei milyen módon kommunikálják jelenünk szorongásait, és azok hogyan kapcsolódnak a kör, a körkörösség, valamint körbekerítés filmbeli motívumaihoz, amelyek szerves részét képezik a történetnek. Az elemzés külön figyelmet fordít az elkerített településformák közösségtípusaira, valamint a harmadik epizód történetszálára.
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Book review: Crişan, Marius-Mircea, ed. Dracula: An International Perspective. Palgrave Gothic. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. xi + 280 pages. ISBN 978-3-319-63365-7. Hb. $101.51
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Book review: de Bruin-Molé, Megen. Gothic Remixed: Monster Mashups and Frankenfictions in 21st-Century Culture. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2019. x + 264 pages. ISBN 978-1350103054. Hb. £76.50
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anulmányomban két olyan ifjúsági fantasyvel foglalkozom, amelynek középpont-jában a fiatalkori trauma áll. Kiindulópontom Patrick NessSzólít a szörnycíműkisregénye, amelyben a főszereplő fiú édesanyja közelgő halálát egy szörny kéret-len... more
anulmányomban két olyan ifjúsági fantasyvel foglalkozom, amelynek középpont-jában a fiatalkori trauma áll. Kiindulópontom Patrick NessSzólít a szörnycíműkisregénye, amelyben a főszereplő fiú édesanyja közelgő halálát egy szörny kéret-len segítségével dolgozza fel. A fa-monstrum történetek segítségével ábrázolja afiú pszichés tájképét, és ezáltal rombol és gyógyít. Ez a történetmesélés/fantasystresszoldó szerepéről szóló példabeszéd egyúttal a felnőttvilágba való beavatásrólis szól, mivel a fiú megérti azokat a negatív érzelmeit, amelyek egy komplexebbvilágképet engednek látni. Seanan McGuire kisregényének elemzése a fenti gondo-latmenetet viszi tovább. AMélybe ránt a Lápvilágtraumatizált tini (iker) fősze-replői egy olyan másik világban találnak ideiglenes otthonra, amely szintén men-tális tájképként olvasható: a Lápvilág a gyerekekben lezajló pszichés folyamatokleképződése, és annak monstruozitása a karakterek valós világban érzékelt szükség-leteiből adódó válaszként értelmezhető. McGuire különbséget tesz a két ikerleányhelyzetértékelési és helyzetértelmezési képességeit illetően, ennek különbségét isrészben a másként megélt traumatizált gyerekkorhoz – és így eltérő érzelmekhez –köti.Kulcsszavak:trauma, kognitív kompetenciák, pszichés tájkép
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In his own version of A Midsummer Night's Dream, Neil Gaiman exploits the possibilities in doubling: he presents the Shakespearean comedy as a play within the artistic space of his graphic novel and creates mythical doubles, interpreting... more
In his own version of A Midsummer Night's Dream, Neil Gaiman exploits the possibilities in doubling: he presents the Shakespearean comedy as a play within the artistic space of his graphic novel and creates mythical doubles, interpreting Hamnet's character as a seduced changeling and Puck's character as a voluntary changeling who, in the Sandman universe, could be each other's functional doubles. Such a reading reveals that what in Shakespeare's play is a tool to visualize that art is capable of mirroring reality becomes a means to express the interchangeability of the realistic and the fantastic realms. Gaiman's strategy of doubling thus suggests an understanding of life that surpasses the narrow interpretation of historical facts and thereby it may offer a viable alternative to what we experience as reality.
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What strikingly differentiates What We Do in the Shadows (2014) from the numerous vampire comedies of the past is its genre, the mockumentary,1 which compels an audience to continually interpret what is shown in relation to contemporary... more
What strikingly differentiates What We Do in the Shadows (2014) from the numerous vampire comedies of the past is its genre, the mockumentary,1 which compels an audience to continually interpret what is shown in relation to contemporary culture. The film therefore offers exciting opportunities to explore the transformation of the vampire as “an embodiment of a certain cultural moment” (Cohen, “Seven Theses” 4). With its visual and verbal intertextual references, Shadows behaves as most vampire films do: it positions itself in the history of cinematic vampires in relation to emblematic works (Weinstock) and speaks about culture by focusing on the vampire body as the representation of the culturally other. As I will argue in this paper, the otherness that Shadows explores as a cultural phenomenon of our time concerns weakness: a loss of power that used to be associated with the monstrous other, as well as the loss of power associated with the hegemonic position of white males in society. In order to explore the nature of the weakness presented in the movie and how it relates to the use of the genre, I will clarify differences between the so called Female Gothic and Male Gothic and show how differentiating between these literary traditions is useful when we try to understand the power crisis presented in the Shadows. Then I will connect these findings to the theoretical framework provided by Sally Robinson in her groundbreaking book Marked Men: White Masculinity in Crisis (2000) to better comprehend white male power in society and its representations in art, and to connect it for the first time to vampire studies. In the end, I will discuss how the choice of genre relates to the visibility/invisibility politics that Robinson highlights in her study and how the vampires' paradoxical attitude towards visibility connects to societal fears and desires.
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What strikingly differentiates What We Do in the Shadows (2014) from the numerous vampire comedies of the past is its genre, the mockumentary,1 which compels an audience to continually interpret what is shown in relation to contemporary... more
What strikingly differentiates What We Do in the Shadows (2014) from the numerous vampire comedies of the past is its genre, the mockumentary,1 which compels an audience to continually interpret what is shown in relation to contemporary culture. The film therefore offers exciting opportunities to explore the transformation of the vampire as “an embodiment of a certain cultural moment” (Cohen, “Seven Theses” 4). With its visual and verbal intertextual references, Shadows behaves as most vampire films do: it positions itself in the history of cinematic vampires in relation to emblematic works (Weinstock) and speaks about culture by focusing on the vampire body as the representation of the culturally other. As I will argue in this paper, the otherness that Shadows explores as a cultural phenomenon of our time concerns weakness: a loss of power that used to be associated with the monstrous other, as well as the loss of power associated with the hegemonic position of white males in society. In order to explore the nature of the weakness presented in the movie and how it relates to the use of the genre, I will clarify differences between the so called Female Gothic and Male Gothic and show how differentiating between these literary traditions is useful when we try to understand the power crisis presented in the Shadows. Then I will connect these findings to the theoretical framework provided by Sally Robinson in her groundbreaking book Marked Men: White Masculinity in Crisis (2000) to better comprehend white male power in society and its representations in art, and to connect it for the first time to vampire studies. In the end, I will discuss how the choice of genre relates to the visibility/invisibility politics that Robinson highlights in her study and how the vampires' paradoxical attitude towards visibility connects to societal fears and desires.
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One of the central motifs of Abu-Jaber's three novels, Arabian Jazz (1993), Crescent (2003), and Origin (2007), is the half-and-half experience, metaphorically presented via characters who by origin belong to two cultures. By creating... more
One of the central motifs of Abu-Jaber's three novels, Arabian Jazz (1993), Crescent (2003), and Origin (2007), is the half-and-half experience, metaphorically presented via characters who by origin belong to two cultures. By creating connections to the myth of the American Adam in the New World Garden there is a gradually widening scope of understanding of the "half-and-half" experience of the characters these novels, moving from a concrete meaning (half "white American" half "Arab American") to a more universal perception,. Being close to nature, in all its manifestations in the various novels, is Abu-Jaber's metaphor for what America no longer represents although it once did; that is, the opposite of what America has become as a consequence of the "civilizing" process. Nevertheless, instead of rejecting the old myth, the author opts to renew it: her instinctive women characters, these American Eves, together with the American Adams around them, metaphorically perform a "naturalizing" act, thus subverting—actually, renewing—the myth of the American Adam in the New World Garden.
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Considering the diorama room scene in Tony Kushner's Angels in America as a section that provides a lecture on the major themes of the play, the essay undertakes the analysis of the various topics that the scene problematizes. The... more
Considering the diorama room scene in Tony Kushner's Angels in America as a section that provides a lecture on the major themes of the play, the essay undertakes the analysis of the various topics that the scene problematizes. The argument focuses primarily on how the cyclic notion of time is established both on the textual and visual level and how this notion of time and history connects the specifically American themes to the universal ones. The paper, furthermore, reinterprets Martin Harries's observation that the diorama room scene should be seen as "Angels' 'Mousetrap,'" highlighting the similarities in the dramatic function. Finally, the analysis relates the concept of Zion to the cyclicality of time, which includes the irresistible impulse to recreate the universe—an act that the play figuratively performs.
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The fantasy worlds that Robert Holdstock and Neil Gaiman have created share a number of similarities, especially concerning their focuses on mankind's attitude to the divine and the mythic, their use of dreams as one of the structuring... more
The fantasy worlds that Robert Holdstock and Neil Gaiman have created share a number of similarities, especially concerning their focuses on mankind's attitude to the divine and the mythic, their use of dreams as one of the structuring principles in their fiction, as well as preferring restoration as a major theme, and thus a motive for the protagonists in their novels. However, exactly the diverging treatments of these common motifs and interests differentiate the two worlds so much from each other that they seem to carry opposing understandings of the realm that can be identified as fantastic in the two worlds, yet very strongly connected to what is thought to be real and pragmatically approachable. The present paper examines Holdstock's The Hollowing and Ancient Echoes, as well as Gaiman's American Gods, arguing that the key to the fundamental dissimilarities is understanding the central actions as a mythic quest in Holdstock's approach and as a divine quest in Gaiman's treatment of the same topic. These differences will be shown to be connected to the genre the authors have chosen to work within; and although both Holdstock and Gaiman are usually labeled simply as fantasy writers, the paper proposes that Holdstock is closer to what may be identified as science fiction or science/psychological fantasy, whereas Gaiman's work calls for a magical realist interpretation.
The paper was published in Hungarian Journal of English and American Studies: HJEAS 20.1 (2014):77-90
The paper was published in Hungarian Journal of English and American Studies: HJEAS 20.1 (2014):77-90
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Overwriting the white male myth of the American Adam in the American Garden has been a major concern in contemporary American ethnic and feminist literature in the past couple of decades. Ethnic literature has sought a novel way to... more
Overwriting the white male myth of the American Adam in the American Garden has been a major concern in contemporary American ethnic and feminist literature in the past couple of decades. Ethnic literature has sought a novel way to express the basic conflict between the culture of an ethnic minority and the dominant American culture by subverting this fundemantal American myth. One way of doing so is to „ethnicize” the old myth, and replace the American Adam with an ethnic character, by now very often with an ethnic Eve. Another approach is to consider conquering nature as unnatural and thus unsustainable, recognizing the need for renaturizing the world. Ethnic literature tends to identify itself as a culture representing nature in contrast with the industrialized and in many respects overcivilzed America, and one of the key symbols, in this discourse is the garden taimed and in need of renaturazing.
Amy Tan's first novel, The Joy Luc Club, applies a number of motifs that serve to renaturize important components of the American life that its Chinese and Chinese-American characters live in. From this respect, one of the most important chapters is „Without Wood,” in which Rose's garden, once neatly cultivated by his husband, becomes a weedy garden, symbolizing Rose's hidden dream that she comes to understand while she is separating from her husband. The paper aims to present the levels of interpretation attached to the garden, including the subversion of the American Dream, reinterpreting, what is more, renaturizing even the concept of the American Nightmare.
Amy Tan's first novel, The Joy Luc Club, applies a number of motifs that serve to renaturize important components of the American life that its Chinese and Chinese-American characters live in. From this respect, one of the most important chapters is „Without Wood,” in which Rose's garden, once neatly cultivated by his husband, becomes a weedy garden, symbolizing Rose's hidden dream that she comes to understand while she is separating from her husband. The paper aims to present the levels of interpretation attached to the garden, including the subversion of the American Dream, reinterpreting, what is more, renaturizing even the concept of the American Nightmare.
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The British-American TV series Dracula (2013-14), cancelled after its first season of ten episodes, is mostly referred to as a “reimagining” of Bram Stoker's Dracula novel. Keeping the original setting of Victorian England yet treating... more
The British-American TV series Dracula (2013-14), cancelled after its first season of ten episodes, is mostly referred to as a “reimagining” of Bram Stoker's Dracula novel. Keeping the original setting of Victorian England yet treating the novel freely, the series re-contextualizes the well known characters and themes of the original piece. The paper focuses on how some of the changes successfully contribute to understanding this new Dracula character as a cultural signifier of our time. One of the important features to consider in this respect is how the TV series breaks with the original East-West simple binarism, when it presents Dracula as both Eastern European and American, while connecting the economic-political forces that Dracula fights against to the Eastern European Order of the Dragon. The American background reinforces Dracula as an “Other” in nineteenth century England, but also lends an aspect of inventiveness and modernism to its character. This feature evokes the theme of technology versus religious heritage that is central in Stoker's work in a transformed manner, identifying the vampire as a threat both ancient and modern. Dracula's modernizing character becomes manifest through his ambition to ruin the old secret society's economic power, trying to utilize wireless electricity to work against the oil market that „fuels” the Order of the Dragon. This businessman activity is symbolic also because it emphasizes the vampire's continuous effort to step out of his role as the creature of darkness, and link himself to light. To support the observation that this newly fashioned Dracula is subversive and reflective of our age, his relationship to the substantially redesigned subsidiary characters Renfield and Mina is also examined.
Key Words
Dracula, Stoker, Haddon, monster, vampire, colonization, American, Frankenstein, technology, Renfield
Published: Monsters and the Monstrous 5.2 (Fall 2015): 41-54.
Key Words
Dracula, Stoker, Haddon, monster, vampire, colonization, American, Frankenstein, technology, Renfield
Published: Monsters and the Monstrous 5.2 (Fall 2015): 41-54.
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Similarly to Foucaultʼs example of the mirror, the film—and the medium that transmits it to the spectator, whether it is a monitor or a huge screen—functions as a heterotopic space. The heterotopia thus created has profound implications... more
Similarly to Foucaultʼs example of the mirror, the film—and the medium that transmits it to the spectator, whether it is a monitor or a huge screen—functions as a heterotopic space. The heterotopia thus created has profound implications in The Hunger Games trilogy, where turning the Games into a public event, a screened spectacle, provides the foundations of a stable-looking, authoritarian state. Among the series of events constituting the Hunger Games, the bloody championship that takes place in the arena is of primary significance; accordingly, the paper focuses on how screening the arena creates a heterotopia for Panem that encompasses all the roles that Foucault claims heterotopias should; and how understanding the arena as heterotopia leads to comprehending the underlying mechanisms of President Snowʼs state. The arena in itself is a kind of heterotopia, I argue; and turning it into a spectacle via broadcasting the main events that take place there completes its heterotopic functions. After observing the arena as a physical place based on all the principles that Foucault explains in his theory, I will then focus on the arena as a place of performance. My approach relies on Joanne Tompkinsʼs narrowed interpretation of heterotopia as suiting theater space analysis, this way highlighting the arenaʼs function as a broadcast theater space.
The paper is published in Displacing the Anxieties of Our World: Spaces of the Imagination. Ed. Ildikó Limpár. Cambridge Schlar Publisging, 2017. 177-199.
The paper is published in Displacing the Anxieties of Our World: Spaces of the Imagination. Ed. Ildikó Limpár. Cambridge Schlar Publisging, 2017. 177-199.
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This text introduces the collection of essays entitled Displacing the Anxieties of Our World: Spaces of the Imagination. Ed. Ildikó Limpár Ildikó. Cambridge Schlar Publisging, 2017.
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Jelen írás Az éhezők viadala film (The Hunger Games. Gary Ross, 2012) egyes képi megoldásaira fókuszál, és azt elemzi, hogy azok miként építik ki a Kapitólium és a körzetek ellentétét úgy, hogy ezzel kijelölik Katniss Everdeen „amerikai... more
Jelen írás Az éhezők viadala film (The Hunger Games. Gary Ross, 2012) egyes képi megoldásaira fókuszál, és azt elemzi, hogy azok miként építik ki a Kapitólium és a körzetek ellentétét úgy, hogy ezzel kijelölik Katniss Everdeen „amerikai Éva” karakterré válásának útját. Ennek értelmében az elemzés a Kapitólium különféle aspektusait veszi górcső alá, vagyis azt vizsgálja, milyen vizuális elemek erősítik a Kapitólium mint diktatúra, mint freak show („szörnybazár”), mint a technológia letéteményese, illetve mint az imitáció, mutáció és kamuflázs gyakorlatára épülő birodalom imázsát.
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In Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games novels the arena space, itself behaving as a monster, and evoking myths and stories of monstrosity, hints at the Capitol’s beastly nature. The paper first examines connections between the Minotaur... more
In Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games novels the arena space, itself behaving as a monster, and evoking myths and stories of monstrosity, hints at the Capitol’s beastly nature. The paper first examines connections between the Minotaur myth, the “Beauty and the Beast” fairy tale, as well as allusions to Shelley's Frankenstein to highlight how Collins's dystopia resonates or subverts themes of former monster texts, with a special focus on the themes of unfair punishment, transformation, and man's connection to nature and technology. Closely connected to this approach, the ways in which the arena may be considered as a monster will be looked at. Understanding that the simulated wilderness may be seen as an extension of the Capitol's high-tech world, the paper will explore in what manners the arena demonstrates certain features of the Capitol's dictatorial system. Aspects of the space as Other, monstrous, and artificial will be looked at in more detail, examining some of its important components, such as blood, poison, and mutts, which contribute to a fuller understanding of President Snow's dictatorship.
Key words: arena, wilderness, technology, nature, Capitol, monster, beast, artificial, myth, muttation
Key words: arena, wilderness, technology, nature, Capitol, monster, beast, artificial, myth, muttation
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In Catching Fire, Katniss imagines President Snow as drinking blood elegantly from a glass, wearing his expensive suit that has a rose in its lapel, and thereby subconsciously connects the Capitol's dictatorship to the vampire image,... more
In Catching Fire, Katniss imagines President Snow as drinking blood elegantly from a glass, wearing his expensive suit that has a rose in its lapel, and thereby subconsciously connects the Capitol's dictatorship to the vampire image, which is a very apt one in all its implications. The paper will highlight some of the vampiric aspects of how the President's image in The Hunger Games trilogy corresponds to his method of governing Panem's people—including the consummation of blood, which the yearly organized Hunger Games epitomizes; the cult of fashion, youth, and body "perfection" in the Capitol, which links the Capitol characters to the discourse of artificiality and monstrosity, as they embody the Other for Katniss with their freakish appearance and inhuman(e) behavior; the power to transform humans to their own monstrous image, and very importantly, the act of manipulation, one significant motif of which is masking the bloody with the pleasant, will be examined. The paper specifically surveys how Snow suggests in his appearance the bipartite structure that Panem exhibits, and how it relates to the dramatic manifestation of the Capitol's power, that is, the annual Hunger Games. Finally, the relationship between Snow's consumption of blood and his bleeding mouth will be analyzed, establishing a connection between the president's condition and the state his country is in at the outbreak of the revolution.
Key Words : Hunger Games, vampire, blood, rose, Capitol, monster, inhuman, poison, artificiality
The paper is published in Monsters and the Monstrous 4.2 (Winter 2014): 15-24.
Key Words : Hunger Games, vampire, blood, rose, Capitol, monster, inhuman, poison, artificiality
The paper is published in Monsters and the Monstrous 4.2 (Winter 2014): 15-24.