Literature Review T1 112009009 Full text

explain that Postcolonial studies starts from Orientalism and both of them were first brought up by the same person: Edward Said. The ground of Post-colonial studies would not be what it is today without Edward Said‟s work. His work made a very influential statement on the nature of identity formation in the Postcolonialism that people know today. The term Postcolonialism means to propose both resistance to the colonial and its discourses continue to form cultures whose revolutions have overthrown formal ties to their former colonial rulers Khan. It is not surprising if Post- Colonial Theory is often used to analyze the marginalized and exploited side in making revolutions. Moreover in an unequal world, it is no wonder that this theory developed so well and thus other Postcolonial critics like Gayatri C. Spivak, Homi K. Bhabha, and Frantz Fanon have appeared, influenced and transformed the theory Khan, p. 1. Postcolonial criticism has embraced a number of aims: most fundamentally, to reexamine the history of colonialism from the perspective of the colonized; to determine the economics of both the colonized people and the colonizing power Habib, p. 738. Marxist theory, which stated that money means power, has also been closely related to Postcolonial criticism. Both theories have been used to investigate literary works; such as Oliver Twist, Jane Eyre, Mansfield Park, etc. to examine their processes of „colonialisation‟. In The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms , Ross Murfin and Supryia M. Ray stated that an analysis of literary texts produced in countries and cultures that had come under the control of colonial powers at some point in their history is involved in „Postcolonial Criticism‟. Postcolonial Criticism, therefore, often examines countries and previously colonized places in both past and present times, and probably will continue to do so in the future as well. Yet, the theory has continued to expand. This is because there are various groups of people that are still marginalized at the time the theory was developed; for example the slaves in the past, the poor people, the immigrants, and also other oppressed members of society that still exist today. However, with the theory expanded it doesn‟t mean that colonialization has been overcome; it still happens nowadays in many ways and in many forms and the end is still nowhere to be seen. Moreover, in this case, The Hunger Games Trilogy is written in a futuristic setting and colonialization is even represented there. It shows that the power of colonialization, related to knowledge, is not just something that happened in the past but is still a very real problem for humanity which often happens and will likely continue to happen in the future. In this paper, therefore, I will apply postcolonial criticism based on Edward Said‟s theory, examining the interrelation between power and knowledge in the uprising of the colonized group in Suzanne Collins‟ Catching Fire, the second book of The Hunger Games series. If we discuss about power in accordance with the philosophies of Michel Foucault and Edward Said, that knowledge should be considered along the line of power. They established that power and knowledge are the inseparable components of the intellectual binary relationship, and so the applied power of such cultural knowledge allowed Europeans to re- name, re-define, and thereby control Oriental peoples, places, and things, into imperial colonies Orientalism, p. 208.The power –knowledge binary relationship is conceptually essential to identifying and understanding colonialism in general. It is basically said that along with knowledge, the colonizer could control the colonized people which then gave the colonizer more power to obtain the knowledge they needed and control which knowledge is for their private use and which is allowed to be shared to others. Without proper knowledge about gaining power, one cannot gain power that matters from the other party. Without power that matters, no party can obtain proper knowledge for themselves and control the others knowledge. Therefore, power and knowledge always work in mutual directions in order to obtain control of colonized people. As stated before, Said established how power and knowledge are the inseparable components of the intellectual binary relationship Orientalism. Indeed those who have higher knowledge have higher chances to control the others because they know how to do it. Therefore, those who have power of controlling others‟ knowledge usually have political privilege too. The circle goes between acquiring knowledge, gaining power, controlling others to gain more knowledge and oppressing the others‟ knowledge, and so gain more power to monopolize information to become more powerful and so on. This circle generally explains the mutual relationship between power and knowledge. However, that is not entirely applicable to every single case of colonization outside the European colonization. There are other aspects that draw power as strong as knowledge and draw knowledge as delicate as power. Those are strong will, humanity, courage, and others. Thereby, this study is taking its concern by looking at some special cases where the mutual relationship between power and knowledge is not conceptually essential. For Said, the willingness to acquire knowledge is the key and he argues that it is essential to know and distinguish between the wish to understand and enable peaceful co-existence and the use of knowledge to dominate and for malevolent ends AmalTreacher. Now, apart from what motivations and consequences there are to acquire knowledge, the question is: Is knowledge the only key to gain power? The intention of this research is to analyze the colonized people, the oppressed ones, who are dehumanized in the The Hunger Games: Catching Fire against their rulers called The Capitol. This book is mostly focused on the rebels struggling for equality and how their uprising was unintentionally started by a teenage girl named Katniss. Using Edward Said‟s theory, I will examine how far knowledge influenced their power in the process to stand up against the Capitol. The point of view of the book is taken from the perspective of the colonized, but this paper is first going to verify the way they are mistreated by also analyzing how the Capitol and its government maintain their power. Then secondly, to answer the following questions: How far is the role of knowledge inseparable with power in the uprising of the rebels? Is there any avenue to gain power other than knowledge?

III. Summary of the Text

The Hunger Games Trilogy takes place in an unidentified future time period in North America after it is destroyed and replaced by a totally new nation known as Panem. The story of the protagonist, KatnissEverdeen, starts in the first book, entitled The Hunger Games and builds more complicated conflicts and actions in the second book, Catching Fire. This thesis will apply the theory of Postcolonialism to analyze the rebels in the second book of The Hunger Games Trilogy: Catching Fire, where the uprising of the oppressed districts ignites. There are some details from the first book that are important to know before we begin to look at the second book. Panem, the new nation that replaced North America in an unidentified future, is led by the Capitol which is surrounded by 12 districts that are forced to produce different resources for the Capitol. Once, the districts rebelled against the Capitol but the twelve of them were defeated and the thirteenth was allegedly destroyed. As punishment and commemoration for the districts and as entertainment for the Capitol, one boy and one girl between the age of twelve and eighteen from each districts must participate annually in the Hunger Games, either being selected in a lottery or volunteering as a tribute in an event called „the reaping‟. The rules of the Game are simple, being released in a dangerous outdoor arena the 24 tributes must fight to death. The victor is the one who remains. The victor and hisher district will be rewarded by the Capitol. The Games are televised nationally and the whole of Panem must watch it from the beginning to the end. Coming from District Twelve, 16-year-old KatnissEverdeen volunteers as a tribute in the 74 th Hunger Games to replace her sister who had originally been chosen.Katniss is taken along with PeetaMellark, who has had a secret crush on Katniss since they were kids, and they are both mentored by an alcoholic, Haymitch Abernathy, District 12‟s only living victor. Haymitch later demands Katniss and Peeta to act as if they‟re lovers to capture the sponsors‟ sympathy because it is only from sponsors that the tributes can receive all the help needed during the Games. In the arena, Katniss does an impromptu memorial when her one and only ally is killed which is seen as an act of defiance against the Capitol. The Gamemakers later change the rules so that if both tributes from the same district survive to be the final two standing, they‟ll both be declared as victors. Katniss then teams up with Peeta; they both spare each other lives and are the final two standing from District 12 when the rule changes back so that there can only be one victor. Unexpectedly, Katniss gives Peeta some nightlock poisonous berries to commit double-suicide. It urges the Gamemakers to declare them both to be victors even though then their act is seen as a huge defiance. In the second book, Catching Fire, 9 months has passed since Katniss and Peeta were declared victorious. Everything at home in District 12 has changed, including Katniss relationship with Gale Hawthorne, her best friend and hunting buddy. Also, she and Peeta still have to pretend theyre in love because before the “Victory Tour” of the country, P resident Snow threatens Katniss that he will hurt the people she loves if she can‟t convince him and Panem‟s citizens that the nightlock action was nothing like a rebellious action. If Panem sees it merely as done because they‟re both madly in love, the Districts will not be encouraged to rebel.