‘Until the Mockingjay Sings’: The Ballad(s) of Lucy Gray and the New Intertextual Layers of The Hunger Games
‘Until the Mockingjay Sings’: The Ballad(s) of Lucy Gray and the New Intertextual Layers of The Hunger Games

Summary/Abstract: This paper aims to explore the intertextual dimension of the most recent additions to the Hunger Games canon in order to determine whether Suzanne Collins’s 2018 novel and its 2023 adaptation merely provide readers and viewers with an opportunity to visit the past of Panem and witness the genesis of the elaborate spectacle Katniss Everdeen needs to navigate 64 years later or entail even deeper incursions into literature and cultural history. To this end, the analysis is going to identify the various sources of inspiration employed in the construction of the literary and cinematic narratives, comment on the significance of names and symbols, examine the novel’s epigraphs and the film’s settings and landmarks, draw parallels between poetry and music, history and mythology, philosophy and fiction, pinpoint connections between the original trilogy and its prequel, compare and contrast the identities of their main protagonists (Coriolanus Snow, Lucy Gray Baird and Katniss Everdeen) and comment on the extent to which the hybrid nature of Dr. Gaul’s genetic experiments reflects the increasingly intertextual nature of Panem’s cultural landscape and inhabitants.

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