TABLE OF CONTENTS -- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS -- INTRODUCTION: Challenging the Politics of Text Complexity -- NAVIGATING THE DIVIDE BETWEEN HIGH AND LOW ART -- THE HUNGER GAMES AND THE ISSUE OF TEXT COMPLEXITY -- THE HUNGER GAMES TRILOGY: CHALLENGING GENRES -- REFERENCES -- PART ONE: "It's All How You're Perceived": Deconstructing Adolescence in Panem -- 1. "SOME WALKS YOU HAVE TO TAKE ALONE": Ideology, Intertextuality, and the Fall of the Empire in The Hunger Games Trilogy -- ANTI-WAR IDEOLOGIES IN THE HUNGER GAMES TRILOGY -- DYSTOPIC INTERTEXTUALITY -- CLASSICAL CONNECTIONS -- JULIUS CAESAR, JUVENAL, AND THE FALL OF THE EMPIRE -- IDEOLOGEMES OF POWER AND TRAUMA -- CONCLUSION -- REFERENCES -- 2. WORSE GAMES TO PLAY?: Deconstructing Resolution in The Hunger Games -- INTRODUCTION: BEGINNING AT THE END -- DECONSTRUCTION AND THE HUNGER GAMES -- GOOD AND SAFE?: SIGNIFYING CHILDHOOD IN RUE'S MEADOW -- NIGHTMARES OF MUTTS AND LOST CHILDREN: SIGNIFYING TRAUMA -- REAL, NOT REAL, OR SOMEWHERE IN-BETWEEN?: THE RETURN TO THE MEADOW -- CODA -- REFERENCES -- 3. HUNGERING FOR MIDDLE GROUND: Binaries of Self in Young Adult Dystopia -- BRIDGING DIVIDES-CONSTRUCTED AND EMBODIED SELF -- KATNISS EVERDEEN-PRODUCT OF CULTURAL CONSTRAINT -- PROACTIVE PROTAGONISTS AND PEETA'S PURITY OF SELF -- EMBODIED CONSTRUCTION-ADDING GENDER TO THE MIX -- CONCLUSION: MORE THAN A STRONG FEMALE AND SENSITIVE MALE -- NOTES -- REFERENCES -- PART TWO: "I Have a Kind of Power I Never Knew I Possessed": What Philosophy Tells Us about Life in Panem -- 4. THE THREE FACES OF EVIL: A Philosophic Reading of The Hunger Games -- "SO UNLIKE PEOPLE": EVIL AS IGNORANCE -- "DESTROYING THINGS IS EASIER THAN MAKING THEM" -- "HOW FREAKISH THEY LOOK" -- "AT LEAST YOU TWO HAVE DECENT MANNERS": EVIL AS BANALITY -- "TO LOOK INTO THE CONFUSING MESS OF LIFE AND SEE THINGS AS THEY REALLY ARE".

"I NO LONGER FEEL ANY ALLEGIANCE TO THESE MONSTERS CALLED HUMAN BEINGS" -- "I'M TIRED OF BEING A PIECE IN THEIR GAMES" -- NOTES -- REFERENCES -- 5. "I WAS WATCHING YOU, MOCKINGJAY": Surveillance, Tactics, and the Limits of Panopticism -- READING LITERATURE THROUGH THE LENS OF PHILOSOPHICAL CRITICISM -- DISCIPLINARY POWER AND THE PANOPTIC PRINCIPLE -- TACTICS AND THE ART OF RESISTANCE -- "I STEP OUT OF LINE AND WE'RE ALL DEAD": SOVEREIGN POWER AND THE SPECTACLE OF TERROR -- "THERE ARE ALWAYS EYES FOR HIRE": DISCIPLINARY POWER AND THE GAZE -- "I HAVE A KIND OF POWER I NEVER KNEW I POSSESSED": VISIBILITY AND THE ART OF RESISTANCE -- CONCLUSION: EMPOWERING READERS TO BECOME AGENTS FOR CHANGE -- REFERENCES -- 6. EXPLOITING THE GAPS IN THE FENCE: Power, Agency, and Rebellion in The Hunger Games -- INTRODUCTION -- THE HUNGER GAMES AND FAMILIAR NOTIONS OF POWER -- RETHINKING POWER WITH FOUCAULT -- FOUCAULT'S MULTIPLE MODALITIES OF POWER -- Sovereign Power -- Disciplinary Power -- Biopower -- Pastoral Power -- BEYOND ABSOLUTE CONTROL: MODALITIES OF POWER IN THE HUNGER GAMES -- The Promise of Punishment: Sovereign Power in the Hunger Games -- Under the Watchful Eye of the Capitol: Disciplinary Power in Panem -- Just a Piece in Their Games: The Role of Biopower -- The Capitol as Protector: Pastoral Power -- EXPLOITING THE GAPS: HOW MULTIPLE MODALITIES OF POWER HELP KATNISS AND PEETA REBEL -- Playing Star-Crossed Lovers: A Performance for Survival -- Multiple Modalities of Power: Making the "Lover" Performance Possible -- IMPLICATIONS FOR UNDERSTANDING TOTALITARIANISM AND DYSTOPIA AS A GENRE -- REFERENCES -- PART THREE: "Look at the State They Left Us In": The Hunger Games as Social Criticism.

7. "IT'S GREAT TO HAVE ALLIES AS LONG AS YOU CAN IGNORE THE THOUGHT THAT YOU'LL HAVE TO KILL THEM": A Cultural Critical Response to Blurred Ethics in The Hunger Games Trilogy -- CULTURAL CRITICISM (OR CULTURAL POETICS): ALL TEXTS, INCLUDING FICTION, ARE "REAL" -- LARGER SOCIAL (AND CULTURAL) STRUCTURES: INSTITUTIONALIZED BEHAVIOR AND THE COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS -- THE HUNGER GAMES APPARENT ETHICAL ORIENTATION AND REFLECTIONS OF OUR OWN MORAL AND ETHICAL DILEMMAS -- CONCLUSION: CULTURAL CRITICISM AND THE POPULARITY OF THE HUNGER GAMES TRILOGY -- REFERENCES -- 8. "I TRY TO REMEMBER WHO I AM AND WHO I AM NOT": The Subjugation of Nature and Women in The Hunger Games -- SOCIAL CRITICISM AND YOUNG ADULT DYSTOPIAN FICTION -- ECOFEMINIST LITERARY CRITICISM -- "IF I CAN FORGET THEY'RE PEOPLE KILLING THEM WILL BE NO DIFFERENT AT ALL" -- "SOMEHOW IT ALWAYS COMES BACK TO COAL AT SCHOOL": A PROGRAM OF DEHUMANIZING OTHERS -- "IF YOU PUT ENOUGH PRESSURE ON COAL IT TURNS TO PEARLS": REGENDERING KATNISS -- "I CAN'T SHAKE THE FEELING THAT I'M BEING WATCHED CONSTANTLY": THE PERILS OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN A SURVEILLANCE SOCIETY -- BEYOND "THE BASTARD STEPSON OF REAL LITERATURE" -- REFERENCES -- 9. "WE END OUR HUNGER FOR JUSTICE!": Social Responsibility in The Hunger Games Trilogy -- LOOSENING THE BONDS OF TYRANNY: SOCIAL AWARENESS AND RESPONSIBILITY -- ENVISIONING A NEW REPUBLIC -- CONCLUSION -- REFERENCES -- PART FOUR: "That's a Wrap": Films, Fandom, and the Politics of Social Media -- 10. "SHE HAS NO IDEA. THE EFFECT SHE CAN HAVE": A Rhetorical Reading of The Hunger Games -- THE RHETORICAL MODEL OF NARRATIVE -- NARRATING PANEM -- READER AS SPECTATOR -- THE ETHICS OF THE TELLING AND THE TOLD -- WE'RE NOT AS BAD AS THE CAPITOL, I PROMISE: ETHICALLY VIEWING THE FILM -- CONCLUSION -- NOTES -- REFERENCES.

11. ARE THE -ISMS EVER IN YOUR FAVOR?: Children's Film Theory and The Hunger Games -- MARX, HISTORICAL MATERIALISM AND THE HUNGER GAMES -- FROM REVOLUTIONARY TO BEAUTY QUEEN: FEMINISM AND THE HUNGER GAMES -- THE POLITICS OF WHITENESS: MULTICULTURALISM AND THE HUNGER GAMES -- CONCLUSION -- NOTES -- REFERENCES -- 12. THE REVOLUTION STARTS WITH RUE: Online Fandom and the Racial Politics of The Hunger Games -- INTRODUCTION -- THE RUE-VOLUTIONARIES: YOUTH READING, RESPONDING, AND RECIRCULATING ONLINE -- LITERACY PRODUCTION OF MEMES -- CONFRONTING THE UNIMAGINABLE: INVISIBLE RACIAL REPRESENTATION IN YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE -- CONCLUSION: CONFRONTING THE IMAGINATION -- NOTES -- REFERENCES -- AFTERWORD: WHY ARE STRONG FEMALE CHARACTERS NOT ENOUGH?: Katniss Everdeen and Lisbeth Salander, from Novel to Film -- KATNISS EVERDEEN AND LISBETH SALANDER, FROM NOVEL TO FILM -- REFERENCES -- AUTHOR BIOGRAPHIES.