Biopower, Discipline, and Resistance in The Hunger Games (2012): A Foucauldian Analysis

Authors

  • Georgia Love Lee MAKARIOS CHRISTIAN SCHOOL
  • Gwyneth Lillian Silaen MAKARIOS CHRISTIAN SCHOOL
  • Felicia Celine Saputra MAKARIOS CHRISTIAN SCHOOL
  • Benaiya Tristan Jacobus MAKARIOS CHRISTIAN SCHOOL
  • Abimanyu Noah MAKARIOS CHRISTIAN SCHOOL
  • Rachell Anastasya Hutagalung MAKARIOS CHRISTIAN SCHOOL

Keywords:

The Hunger Games (2012), Michel Foucault, biopower, disciplinary power, resistance, popular culture, dystopia

Abstract

This study examines The Hunger Games (2012), directed by Gary Ross, through Michel Foucault’s concepts of power, discipline, and biopolitics. Using qualitative content analysis, the research investigates how the Capitol maintains dominance over the districts and how resistance emerges within oppressive systems. The findings reveal: 1) the Capitol’s exercise of biopower reduces life to political control, exemplified in the ritual of the Reaping where sacrifice is normalized as governance. 2) disciplinary power is reinforced through spectacle and propaganda, such as televised ceremonies and the constant reminder of rebellion, which embed fear and institutionalize trauma across generations. 3) despite these mechanisms of control, acts of resistance emerge: Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark subvert Capitol authority through personal defiance, illustrating Foucault’s view that power inevitably produces resistance. By highlighting these dynamics, the film underscores how power operates not only through coercion but also through cultural production, surveillance, and ideology. This analysis contributes to the understanding of how popular culture reflects and critiques structures of domination and the possibilities of resistance in both fictional and real-world contexts.

References

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Foucault, M. (1982). The subject and power. In H. Dreyfus & P. Rabinow (Eds.), Michel Foucault: Beyond structuralism and hermeneutics (pp. 208–226). University of Chicago Press.

Foucault, M. (2003). The essential Foucault: Selections from essential works of Foucault, 1954–1984 (P. Rabinow & N. Rose, Eds.). New Press.

Koopman, C. (2018). Infopolitics, biopolitics, anatomo-politics: Toward a genealogy of the power of data. Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal, 39(1), 103–128. https://doi.org/10.5840/gfpj20183913

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World Inequality Lab. (2021). World inequality report 2022. https://wir2022.wid.world

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Published

2025-08-31

How to Cite

Lee, G. L., Silaen, G. L., Saputra, F. C., Jacobus, B. T., Noah, A., & Hutagalung, R. A. (2025). Biopower, Discipline, and Resistance in The Hunger Games (2012): A Foucauldian Analysis. Boanerges: Makarios Education Journal, 3(1), 90–101. Retrieved from https://streamfly.tech/index.php/boanerges/article/view/43

Issue

Vol. 3 No. 1 (2025): BOANERGES

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