The Anthropocene and the environment in the arena
an ecocritical reading of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15448/1984-7726.2024.1.45720Keywords:
Anthropocene, dystopia, ecocriticism, environment, The Hunger Games.Abstract
This article aims to present an ecocritical reading of the first volume of The Hunger Games trilogy by American writer Suzanne Collins to analyze the Anthropocene and environmental issues as influential factors in the narrative. The term “Anthropocene” originated in 1995 with Dutch scientist Paul Crutzen’s proposition about the environmental changes seen in recent decades, attributing them to factors resulting from human actions on planet Earth and its natural cycle. Therefore, this nomenclature conceptualizes the current era and, through Ecocritical Studies applied to the arts - especially literature - the theme is touched upon about the inconsequential role played by man given his political, social and economic growth, which allows us to observe the stance as an expression of contemporary capitalist desires. In turn, the dystopian literary text enhances that interpretation by its proposal to illustrate a hostile world managed by individualistic human acts at the level of transforming the environment and the beings that populate it into objects that totalitarian orders can manipulate. Therefore, this research is qualitative and bibliographical in its characterization, based on contributions from theorists who discuss the Anthropocene, such as Jedediah Purdy (2015), Jan Jagodzinski (2018), and Anne Fremaux (2019). Through the study, it was observed that The Hunger Games confirms the predominance of an increasingly accurate and questionable scenario by exposing a panorama subject to human ideals of progress, to the irresponsible use of natural goods and by subjecting individuals to values that favour the regime established by the most developed classes.
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