Specific features of young adult anti-utopia as a genre of fiction (on the material of S. Collins’s trilogy “The Hunger Games”)

Ignatova, I. V.

Specific features of young adult anti-utopia as a genre of fiction (on the material of S. Collins’s trilogy “The Hunger Games”)

Liberal Arts in Russia. 2015. Vol. 4. No. 6. Pp. 440-451.

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https://doi.org/10.15643/libartrus-2015.6.4

Ignatova I. V.

Tula State Lev Tolstoy Pedagogical University

125 Lenin Ave., 300026 Tula, Russia

Email: irene16@yandex.ru

Abstract

Anti-utopia as a genre of literature has always attracted scientific interest. The result of this interest is a number of definitions of the term “anti-utopia”, none of which is universally accepted, and singling out of peculiar characteristics of such literature. The term “young adult anti-utopia” and specific features of such novels present a scientific lacuna. Having studied the language means creating the fictional world picture in modern anti-utopian young adult trilogies, the author identifies 15 main features typical of the genre. The results of the research lead to the conclusion that some of the features are universal for the genre of anti-utopia in general: description of a totalitarian state, geographical limitation, vague identification of the past, suffering of the poor, a brave protagonist trying to shatter the existing government, etc. But some other features, mainly, the ones connected with teenage self-identification and alleviation of adolescent stand against the worlds of childhood and adulthood, are typical of young adult anti-utopias: young adult as a protagonist, importance of beauty, ability to sacrifice, a deem hope of a better future preconditioned by evolution of the human race.

Keywords

• anti-utopia
• feature
• young adult
• genre
• trilogy

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