Aestheticizing Politics and Politicizing Aesthetics: The Dialectic of Power and Resistance in Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games

Abstract

This paper explores the dynamic interplay between aesthetics and politics in Suzanne Collins’s dystopian novel The Hunger Games. It examines how the Capitol’s construction of spectacle and propaganda aestheticizes violence and control, while the resistance movement led by Katniss Everdeen politicizes aesthetics to challenge hegemonic power structures. Drawing on the theoretical frameworks of Walter Benjamin and Guy Debord, the study investigates how aesthetics function as a medium of both domination and resistance. The analysis focuses on the Capitol’s use of visual and performative elements—from the luxurious costumes of its citizens to the meticulously orchestrated pageantry of the Games—to reinforce its authoritarian rule and legitimize systemic violence. At the same time, characters such as Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark subvert this spectacle through acts of defiance and self-representation that politicize beauty, performance, and symbolism. By weaponizing aesthetics, the protagonists transform tools of oppression into instruments of dissent, destabilizing the Capitol’s narrative and inspiring collective resistance. The paper ultimately demonstrates how art and politics intersect to shape perception, ideology, and social change in contemporary dystopian fiction.