Performing Church in Dystopia

Abstract

Abstract Suzanne Collins’s books about the Hunger Games lack references to religious beliefs or practices. However, in this article I argue that the resistance to oppression in the books can be read theologically, starting from an understanding of the church as a visible social body. Building on the political and liturgical theology of William T. Cavanaugh, I discuss how the scattering effects of torture are challenged in The Hunger Games . I focus on how bodily resistance to the practices of torture is described in Collins’s books and connect this to Cavanaugh’s theology about community, individuality, and the idea of ritual practices as resistance. Finally, I discuss how the anti-liturgy of torture is challenged when the performance of social bodies introduces elements of linearity in the repetitive cycle of isolating rituals. The Hunger Games is often read as an individualistic narrative about an individualistic heroine. Reading it in dialogue with Cavanaugh sheds light on how the formation of a social body is a significant part of Katniss’s resistance, both toward the Capitol and later toward the rebels from District 13.