Ambiguity, Ambivalence and Extravagance in The Hunger Games

Abstract

I argue that Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games is an emblem of what Julia Kristeva calls the “extravagant girl” who wants to have it all and to be the best at everything. Katniss has an ambiguous gender identity, both masculine and feminine, paternal and maternal. And she has ambivalent desires. I conclude that this ambiguity and ambivalence open up new possibilities for girls and initiate an aesthetics of ambiguity.

Keywords

• popular culture
• film
• feminism
• Psychoanalysis
• aesthetics