Comparison of Knut Hamsun's "Sult", Franz Kafka's "Ein Hungerkünstler" and Gary Ross's "The Hunger Games" on the axis of the phenomenon of hunger

In this study, Knut Hamsun's (1859-1952) "Sult" (1890) and Franz Kafka's (1883-1924) "Der Hungerkünstler" (1922) and the movie "The Hunger Games" (2012) directed by Gary Ross are compared in terms of the phenomenon of hunger. From a theoretical point of view, this study falls within the research field of comparative literary studies (comparatistics). Two prose texts by two prominent Norwegian and Austrian authors and an American director's cinematic adaptation (from English literature) are analyzed comparatively in terms of the phenomenon of hunger. The first of our research objects is Nobel Prize-winning Norwegian author Knut Hamsun's novel "Sult", originally titled "Sult" in Norwegian and translated into Turkish as "Hunger", which brought the author worldwide fame. The novel depicts the inner world of the main character, who is a writer like the author himself and who is mentally and spiritually starving. In this novel, the author deals with the painful change in social-cultural values, perspectives and living conditions. Franz Kafka's narrative, originally titled "Ein Hungerkünstler" and translated into Turkish as "A Hunger Artist", tells the story of a hunger artist who professionally practiced starvation and made a living by starving for a long time. "The Hunger Games ("The Hunger Games"), on the other hand, tells the story of people from the lower stratum of society, living below the hunger line, participating in an extremely challenging game organized and directed by the upper class, and fighting for life and death. The aim of the study is to compare two important texts written in two different European countries, which are representative of the epic genre, and the movie "The Hunger Games", a different media product that became famous very quickly and is also popular in our country, on the axis of the phenomenon of hunger, and to reveal the similarities and / or differences in the works of art that are the products of different arts / media, different countries, different times, which we have determined to meet on the axis of the main theme of hunger. The aim of the study is to reveal the criticism of the bourgeoisie capitalist order, which is the main common target where the arrows of criticism of these selected works meet.