The simulacrum in coded discourse parody The hunger games and The year of the flood

Abstract

This thesis examines Margaret Atwood's 'The Year of the Flood' and Suzanne Collins's 'The Hunger Games', aiming at an analysis on the presence of Baudrillard's concept of simulacrum in parody of coded discourses. I argue that both novels present several instances of parody of coded discourses, according to Hutcheon's definitions, with emphasis on science fiction, mass media, religious discourses, and experiences of nostalgia. In the construction of these parodies, I identified frequent use of the simulacrum, Baudrillard's concept from 'Simulacra and Simulation'. I analyze how the simulacrum affects the novels in their many spheres, commenting on issues of genre, experience and mediation, based mainly on Baudrillard, Foucault, and Kellner. Considering that parody can approach codes and not only single artworks, I compared the simulacrum's presence with parody's, to discover that they often coincide or, more specifically, that the simulacrum is part of the construction of parodic inversion, questioning, or exposure. I conclude that, in cases of parody of coded discourses with the simulacrum in the analyzed novels, there is an effect of exposure of illusions. These illusions comprehend notions of unmediated communication, including storytelling and mass media forms, and notion of freedom of choice or identity, in regard to politics of identification and the pervasiveness of identity commodification.