There Is an Idea of a Patrick Bateman, Some Kind of Abstraction, but There

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

There Is an Idea of a Patrick Bateman, Some Kind of Abstraction, but There 1 “…there is an idea of a Patrick Bateman, some kind of abstraction, but there is no real me, only an entity, something illusory, and though I can hide my cold gaze and you can shake my hand and feel flesh gripping yours and maybe you can even sense our lifestyles are probably comparable: I simply am not there.” Bret Easton Ellis, author of the controversial book American Psycho (1991) puts forward the thought that mind and body are distinct. The quote I shall be discussing is one of the protagonists’ (Patrick Bateman’s) key self-analysis, in which he believes that even though he physically exists, he is nothing more than an illusion and an abstraction. Bateman’s feelings of absence are reinforced by his numerous internal monologues, this quote being one of them. I will use Rene Descartes’ meditations along with the concept of the self in order to differentiate between mind and body, and to conclude whether Bateman is really not there. Firstly I will look at the concept of the self. Self-analysis is the first step to understand who you are, and self-conceptualization is a cognitive component of oneself. Once one is fully aware of oneself, that person then has a concept of himself/herself. This concept is usually broken down into two parts: The Existential Self and The Categorical Self. The existential self is the sense we get of being different from those around us, and the realization of the constancy of the self. The categorical self is when one realizes that he or she is distinct as well as an object in this world, thus having properties that may be experienced, just like any other object. Bateman is convinced that there only exists an idea of himself but no real him, nonetheless what can we define ‘an idea’ to 2 be? Descartes defines an ‘idea’ to be “a mode of thought” - a means in which an instance of thought is established. Descartes’ meditations lead him to his view on the “self” and defining oneself. We shall now look further into Descartes’ three doubts: Sense Perception, Dream/Reality distinction and The Evil Deceiver. Descartes’ states that everything he has accepted as true, he has either learned through or from the senses, however he is aware that the senses are deceptive. Sense Perception is a way of knowing, yet if the senses may deceive us, then we should not fully trust them. For instance, the fact that Bateman knows people can shake his hand and feel his flesh does not necessarily mean that Bateman exists, since his senses may be deceiving him. The word “senses” in Bateman’s internal monologue emphasizes the importance of the senses in defining who he really is. In Descartes’ first meditation, he seeks to found human knowledge on the secure foundations of those truths that we can work out through reason alone, and not through our senses which are deceptive. Patrick Bateman’s senses may be misleading him into believing things that may not be really happening. This, in turn, leads us to the Dream/Reality distinction. When we dream, we process the events and actions that occur within the dream as real, and we are only aware that we would have been dreaming once we wake up, therefore discovering those events to occur in our dream as false. However, if we cannot sense that we are dreaming when we are dreaming, how do we know when we are awake? Descartes argues that we do not realize when we are in a dream and we often have the same perceptions in a dream as we have in what we refer to as ‘awake’. Events and images that occur within our dreams are built upon ideas in our minds, such as innate and adventitious ideas. Generally, our dreams consist of invented ideas, which 3 consist of combinations that we create ourselves of two or more ideas. There are no clear signs to distinguish the dream experience from the waking experience, even though we are conscious of the fact that any image to appear in a dream is an idea of objects in reality. Bateman tells himself that he is “simply not there”, even though one can physically come into contact with his body. This may be a reference to the fact that he is dreaming, and therefore, isn’t mentally there but lost in his dream. There are many scenes that exhibit possible sense deception in American Psycho. One scene that makes the reader question Bateman’s state of mind is when he is at an ATM and upon noticing a cat, sees the words, “Feed Me A Stray Cat” on the screen of the ATM, and proceeds to do so. This event may easily be the product of a dream or his sense of sight deceiving him. If Patrick Bateman truly is in a dream state, he is undoubtedly unaware and believes that he is awake. Could his senses be deceiving him to the extent that he cannot distinguish which events are really taking place and which are a figment of his imagination? Possibly, but even if he is in fact dreaming, what may he define himself as? If Bateman claims that there only exists an idea of a Patrick Bateman, then this idea needs to derive from somewhere in order for there to exist an abstraction on this idea. This brings about the existence of other beings or ideas that resemble Patrick Bateman; other human beings. Descartes’ is yet to define what he is, or any other being for that matter. If there is an idea of something known as Patrick Bateman, then what is that something? Descartes, as he begins his second meditation, is certain that he may doubt everything there is to doubt, except the fact that he is doubting. Some object or thing 4 must be doubting, which Descartes believes to be himself. Therefore, he concludes that since he is doubting, he has to exist, “Cogito Ergo Sum” (I think therefore I am). The ‘I’ is a doubting thing. Patrick Bateman is doubting his physical existence, and if we relate this to Descartes’ meditations, we may say that Patrick Bateman does in fact exist as a thinking thing, nevertheless we are yet to find out if there is more to him, or if he simply is an abstraction; an entity. We are certain that we cannot be deceived about our existence as a thinking thing, that is a mind, soul or intellect, but our knowledge of those objects around us may be false. The existence of individuals as thinking things is strengthened by Descartes’ argument of the wax. If wax melts, all its properties that we perceive through our senses change, yet it is still the same exact piece of wax. Both ‘forms’ of the same wax contain the idea of wax, thus the knowledge of wax is attained through our intellect. From this, we can say that our mind is more clearly and distinctly known to us than our body. There is no correct definition of what our body truly is, but Descartes understands it to be “anything that can be limited by shape, circumscribed in a place and fill a space that all other bodies are excluded from. It can perceived by touch, sight, hearing, taste/smell and may be moved by whatever else touches it.” Bateman has a clear and distinct perception of himself as a thinking thing, as does Descartes by the third meditation. The possibility of deception presents the idea of a benevolent and superior being to us; God. To negate the likelihood of deception, Descartes attempts to prove the existence of God, who may be the Evil Deceiver – the last of Descartes’ doubts. According to Descartes, he [a thinking thing] is born with innate ideas, which are supposedly not tainted by other things, such as the idea of a perfect circle. These innate ideas are the result of an infinite and perfect source which we refer to as God – superior 5 perfect being. Descartes moves on to find out whether he may have created the source for these innate ideas. He is aware of his own imperfections, and argues that this requires an idea of perfection. This idea must originate from something or someone which has at least as much perfection as the notion itself. Therefore, there must exist a perfect cause for the idea of perfection, which we call God. Descartes’ refers to this as the Trademark Argument. Descartes rules out the possibility of these innate ideas being false since God cannot be a deceiver “since it is manifest by the natural light that all fraud and deception depend on some defect”, and God’s perfection implies the nihility of any defect or imperfection. Up until now, we know that Patrick Bateman undeniably exists as a thinking thing and may in fact be dreaming – though that does not deny his existence. Descartes, in his final two meditations, wishes to discover the essence of material objects through a rational approach as opposed to an empirical approach. Firstly, essence is those qualities that make an object what it is. Descartes, as well as Bateman, may clearly and distinctly perceive the property of material things, known as extension; therefore material things exist. Here we come to see that Bateman may exist as a thinking thing separate from an extension; a body. The Ontological Argument argues that God’s essence is distinct to that of other ideas and includes all perfections, which in turn include existence, making existence a necessary property of God.
Recommended publications
  • Reading the Body in Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho (1991): Confusing Signs and Signifiers
    Reading the Body in Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho (1991) David Roche To cite this version: David Roche. Reading the Body in Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho (1991): Confusing Signs and Signifiers. Groupe de Recherches Anglo-Américaines de Tours, Groupe de recherches anglo-américaines de Tours, Université de Tours, 1984-2008, 2009, 5 (1), pp.124-38. halshs-00451731 HAL Id: halshs-00451731 https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00451731 Submitted on 6 Sep 2010 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. 124 GRAAT On-Line issue #5.1 October 2009 Reading the Body in Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho (1991): Confusing Signs and Signifiers David Roche Université de Bourgogne In Ellis’s scandalous end-of-the-eighties novel American Psycho , the tale of Patrick Bateman—a Wall Street yuppie who claims to be a part-time psychopath— the body is first conceived of as a visible surface which must conform to the norms of the yuppies’ etiquette. I use the word “etiquette,” which Patrick uses (231) and which I oppose to the word “ethics” which suggests moral depth, to stretch how superficial the yuppie’s concerns are and to underline, notably, that the yuppie’s sense of self is limited to his social self, his public appearance, his self-image, which I relate to D.
    [Show full text]
  • Unreliable Narration in Bret Easton Ellisâ•Ž American Psycho
    Current Narratives Volume 1 Issue 1 Narrative Inquiry: Breathing Life into Article 6 Talk, Text and the Visual January 2009 Unreliable narration in Bret Easton Ellis’ American Psycho: Interaction between narrative form and thematic content Jennifer Phillips University of Wollongong, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://ro.uow.edu.au/currentnarratives Recommended Citation Phillips, Jennifer, Unreliable narration in Bret Easton Ellis’ American Psycho: Interaction between narrative form and thematic content, Current Narratives, 1, 2009, 60-68. Available at:https://ro.uow.edu.au/currentnarratives/vol1/iss1/6 Research Online is the open access institutional repository for the University of Wollongong. For further information contact the UOW Library: [email protected] Unreliable narration in Bret Easton Ellis’ American Psycho: Interaction between narrative form and thematic content Abstract In this paper I analyse the narrative technique of unreliable narration in Bret Easton Ellis’ American Psycho (1991). Critics have been split about the reliability of Patrick Bateman, the novel’s gruesome narrator- protagonist. Using a new model for the detection of unreliable narration, I show that textual signs indicate that Patrick Bateman can be interpreted as an unreliable narrator. This paper reconciles two critical debates: (1) the aforementioned debate surrounding American Psycho, and (2) the debate surrounding the concept of unreliable narration itself. I show that my new model provides a solution to the weaknesses which have been identified in the rhetorical and cognitive models previously used to detect unreliable narration. Specifically, this new model reconciles the problematic reliance on the implied author in the rhetorical model, and the inconsistency of textual signs which is a weakness of the cognitive approach.
    [Show full text]
  • A Retrospective Reading of Glamorama's (1998) Reception1
    Re1•ista de Estudios Norteamerica11os. 11. º JO (2004), pp. 47 - 56 WHEN CONTEXT HIDES CONTENT: A RETROSPECTIVE READING OF GLAMORAMA'S (1998) RECEPTION1 SONIA B AELO ALLUÉ Universidad de Zaragoza This essay aims at studying the reception of Glamorama (1998), the Iatest novel to date of Bret Easton Ellis, one of the most controversial contemporary US authors. The analysis of this reception and its conclusions goes well beyond the specific case of a single author and constitutes, rather, a reflection of a cultural trend that usually takes place in the reception of literary works. This study delves into a series of questions: do contemporary authors' public personae play an important role in the way their works are interpreted? Is there an obsession with considering a literary work in relation to previous works of the same author? Do reviews of literary works deal with literary merit/demerit at ali? These are questions that pop up as we analyze the type of immediate reviews that the publication of Glamorama brought forth in the media, especially newspapers and magazines. The study of this reception will be used as basis to answer these introductory questions and to examine the role that context plays in the reception of literary works. The fact that these questions arise may support the belief that literary texts cannot be studied on their own anymore. As Tony Bennett claims, when analyzing a literary work one has to take into account «that everything which has been written about it, everything which has been collected on it, becomes attached to it - like shells on a rock by the seashore forming a whole incrustation» (1982: 3) (Klinger 107).
    [Show full text]
  • AMERICAN PSYCHO by Mary Harron and Guinevere Turner
    AMERICAN PSYCHO by Mary Harron and Guinevere Turner Based on the novel by Bret Easton Ellis Fourth Draft November 1998 INT. PASTELS RESTAURANT- NIGHT An insanely expensive restaurant on the Upper East Side. The decor is a mixture of chi-chi and rustic, with swagged silk curtains, handwritten menus and pale pink tablecloths decorated with arrangements of moss, twigs and hideous exotic flowers. The clientele is young, wealthy and confident, dressed in the height of late-eighties style: pouffy Lacroix dresses, slinky Alaïa, Armani power suits. CLOSE-UP on a WAITER reading out the specials. WAITER With goat cheese profiteroles and I also have an arugula Caesar salad. For entrées tonight I have a swordfish meatloaf with onion marmalade, a rare-roasted partridge breast in raspberry coulis with a sorrel timbale... Huge white porcelain plates descend on very pale pink linen table cloths. Each of the entrees is a rectangle about four inches square and look exactly alike. CLOSE-UP on various diners as we hear fragments of conversation. "Is that Charlie Sheen over there?" "Excuse me? I ordered cactus pear sorbet." WAITER And grilled free-range rabbit with herbed French fries. Our pasta tonight is a squid ravioli in a lemon grass broth... CLOSE-UP on porcelain plates containing elaborate perpendicular desserts descending on another table. PATRICK BATEMAN, TIMOTHY PRICE, CRAIG MCDERMOTT and DAVID VAN PATTEN are at a table set for four. They are all wearing expensively cut suits and suspenders and have slicked-back Script provided for educational purposes. More scripts can be found here: http://www.sellingyourscreenplay.com/library hair.
    [Show full text]
  • Consumerism's Serial Annihilation of Women and the Self in American Psycho
    Fast Capitalism ISSN 1930-014X Volume 13 • Issue 1 • 2016 doi:10.32855/fcapital.201601.008 “Inside Doesn’t Matter”: Consumerism’s Serial Annihilation of Women and the Self in American Psycho Reagan Ross That…consumption is no longer restricted to the necessities but, on the contrary, mainly concentrates on the superfluities of life…harbors the grave danger that eventually no object of the world will be safe from consumption and annihilation through consumption. — (Arendt, 1958: 133) Perhaps no film more radically reveals the “serial killer” (cannibalistic) nature of consumerism than American Psycho (2000, Mary Harron). The implications of this disturbing “reality” are cataclysmically far reaching: The end of the world may not come from some tangible material catastrophe (at least insofar as it isn’t a corollary of this dehumanization process); rather, more insidiously, it may come via a psychological de-humanization process whereby we literally lose our humanity from the inside out. To understand this development, the film didactically reveals an all- consuming consumption fixation that begins with a food fetish but then is extended to the consumption of women in particular, Others in general, and, most disturbingly – and informing the first two – the “self.” The Political Didactic Before I discuss this film, I want to defend the importance of the popular political film (and I would strongly argue that American Psycho is one of the most radical political films ever to come out of Hollywood as I will show in this paper). Indeed, I would argue that the progressive (and subversive) potential of popular cinema in general is substantial.
    [Show full text]
  • Autofictional Thought Experiments in Lunar Park by Bret Easton Ellis
    Johannes Franzen Alternate Lives: Autofictional Thought Experiments in Lunar Park by Bret Easton Ellis Fictional narratives can be used to experiment with real lives: In 2005, after a seven-year hiatus, controversial American author Bret Easton Ellis published his fifth novel, Lunar Park. The publication of the book was met with some astonishment. In contrast to the cool detachment with which the author had evoked the cruelty of modern greed and consumerism in his other books, this novel seemed psychologically intimate and emotionally frank. Furthermore, the distinctive minimalism of Ellis’s style had been replaced by a reflective, almost garrulous narrator, who identified himself as the author Bret Easton Ellis. Especially this last detail seemed unsettling since thus far, Ellis had been known for his elaborate autobiographical evasions. His many media appear- ances and his well-publicized life as the enfant terrible of the literary world projected a highly artificial persona, more of a fictitious character than a real person. Lunar Park seemed like an aggressive break with this game of public hide and seek. On its first 30 pages, the book offers straightforward autobiography. Ellis tells the story of the early breakthrough with his first novel Less than Zero, which was published in 1985, when he was still in college. What follows is an account of his ascent to literary stardom, in which the author became part of the American celebrity culture. The shocking content of his books – the amoral attitude of his characters to drug abuse and sexual encounters as well as the depiction of extreme violence – gave him some notoriety.
    [Show full text]
  • American Psycho Malignant Narcissism on the Screen
    Psychoanalytic Psychology Copyright 2001 by the Educational Publishing Foundation 2001, Vol. 18, No. 4, 737-742 0736-9735/01/S5.00 DOI: 10.1037//0736-9735.I8.4.737 American Psycho Malignant Narcissism on the Screen Isaac Tylim, PsyD Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research, New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy, and Maimonides Medical Center American Psycho (1999) may be described as a vivid screen illustration of malignant narcissism. Adapted from Bret Easton Ellis's (1991/2000) eponymous novel, the film was elegantly directed by Mary Harron, whose previous work includes I Shot Andy Warhol (1996). Harron's films transfer the classical American myth of individualism and self-sufficiency—so often depicted in Westerns—to the urban landscape. Instead of cowboys, her films present creatures that roam around free, not in the big empty spaces of the American West, but the overbuilt and menacing jungle of America's big cities with their canyons-streets of cement. The conquest of the West is now the conquest of the Metropolis, and the brave and lone ranger of yesterday has been replaced by the greedy and lone narcissist of today. Despite the obvious differences between / Shot Andy Warhol and American Psycho, these films share the director's sensitivity towards characters that live their lives on the edge. They are young, obsessed individuals enveloped by the endless allure of commercialism and con- sumerism spiced with the cult of celebrity and the hunger for power. While riding in luxury cars these contemporary urban cowboys are struggling desperately to contain the fragility of their respective selves.
    [Show full text]
  • American Psycho As a Social Critique
    ”There is no real me” An analysis of Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho as a social critique Master’s Thesis Mette Timmy Dahl Kastrupsen Aalborg University May 2020 Supervisor: Bent Sørensen Abstract In this master’s thesis, I examine how Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho (1991) can be seen as a critique of American society and the mass consumer, through the novel’s use of features of the postmodern Gothic, its portrayal of consumerism, its usage of the serial killer narrative, as well as how the novel uses unreliability to convey this critique. In addition, I discuss how the character of Patrick Bateman can ultimately be seen as emblematic of the central ideas of this society. In order to analyse these aspects of the novel, I use theories on the parallels between the Gothic and postmodernism to examine how the Gothic has evolved into a contemporary version of the genre, which can be used to portray the darker sides of humanity, and the consequences of capitalism and consumerism in contemporary society. To analyse the novel in terms of the serial killer narrative as a fictional genre, I use theory on how this particular type of narrative has been influenced by, for example, folklore and the Gothic, and additionally, how a specific type of serial killer narrative, the “wilding” serial killer, can be used to analyse American Psycho. Based on my analysis of the postmodern Gothic, consumerism, the serial killer narrative and unreliability in the novel, I find that Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho uses all of these aspects to convey a critique of capitalist society and consumerism.
    [Show full text]
  • AMERICAN PSYCHO Außer Konkurrenz AMERICAN PSYCHO AMERICAN PSYCHO
    Wettbewerb/IFB 2000 AMERICAN PSYCHO Außer Konkurrenz AMERICAN PSYCHO AMERICAN PSYCHO Regie: Mary Harron USA 1999 Darsteller Patrick Bateman Christian Bale Länge 101 Min. Donald Kimball Willem Dafoe Format 35 mm, Paul Allen Jared Leto Cinemascope Courtney Rawlinson Samantha Mathis Farbe Jean Chloë Sevigny Evelyn Williams Reese Witherspoon Stabliste Timothy Bryce Justin Theroux Buch Mary Harron Luis Carruthers Matt Ross Guinevere Turner, David Van Patten Bill Sage nach dem Roman Christie Cara Seymour von Bret Easton Ellis Craig McDermott Josh Lucas Kamera Andrzej Sekula Elizabeth Guinevere Turner Kameraführung Paul Boucher Stash Park Bench Kameraassistenz Jayson Clute Vanden Catherine Black Schnitt Andrew Marcus Harold Carnes Stephen Bogaert Ton Henry Embry Daisy Monika Meyer Musik John Cale Obdachloser Reg.E.Cathey Production Design Gideon Ponte Kellner Blair Williams Ausstattung Andrew Stearn Victoria Marie Dame Kostüm Isis Mussenden Krista Sutton, Christian Bale, Cara Seymor Foto: K. Hayes Barmädchen Kelley Harron Maske Sandra Wheatle Mrs.Wolfe Patricia Gage Regieassistenz Andrew Shea Sabrina Krista Sutton Herstellungltg. Victoria Hirst AMERICAN PSYCHO Aufnahmeleitung Michael Blecher Patrick Bateman verkörpert den Geist und die Werte der 80er Jahre nahezu Produzenten Edward R.Pressman perfekt. Der junge New Yorker sieht blendend aus und kleidet sich elegant. Chris Hanley Designer-Ware muß es sein – sein Label-Bewußtsein ist nur schwer zu über- Christian Halsey treffen. Er besucht die richtigen Clubs und Lokale und modelliert seinen Solomon Executive Producers Michael Paseornek Körper im richtigen Gym. Patrick Bateman profitiert vom Boom: Sein Geld Jeff Sackman verdient er an der Wall Street. Er investiert es in Dinge, die wichtig, gut und Joe Drake teuer sind: das Appartment, die Stereoanlage, den Video-Recorder und But- Co-Producers Ernie Barbaresh ton-down-Oberhemden.Er ist freundlich,guterzogen,intelligent.Dabei legt Clifford Streit er Wert auf Distanz:„Don’t touch the Rolex.“ Joseph Drake Doch die glatte Oberfläche täuscht.
    [Show full text]
  • AMERICAN PSYCHO Musical in 2 Acts
    AMERICAN PSYCHO Musical in 2 acts. Music and lyrics by Duncan Sheik; book by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa; Based on the 1991 novel American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis, and the film Almeida Theatre, London - 12th December, 2013 - 1st February, 2014 SYNOPSIS Set in Manhattan during the Wall Street boom of the late 1980s, American Psycho is about the daily life of wealthy young investment banker Patrick Bateman. Living the high life in 1980s Manhattan, Patrick Bateman has it all – looks, money, style and status. He and his entourage buy the most expensive designer clothes, eat at the most exclusive restaurants and party at the hottest clubs. But privately, Patrick indulges in another kind of transgression. And people - including those closest to him - keep disappearing. STORY Act I Patrick Bateman is a 26-year-old investment banker living in New York City at the end of the 1980s. As the show begins, Bateman documents his morning routine, which involves fastidious grooming, tanning and carefully selecting a designer suit, before travelling to Wall Street (“Opening (Morning Routine)”/”Selling Out”). He arrives at Pierce & Pierce, the elite bank for which he works, and is greeted by his doting secretary, Jean (“Everybody Wants to Rule the World”). He anxiously enquires about the Fisher account, an exclusive account that is highly sought after by Patrick and his colleagues. Later, Patrick has lunch with his coworkers, Tim Price, Craig McDermott, Luis Carruthers and David Van Patten. They exchange fashion tips and critique restaurants before another colleague, Paul Owen, enters. Patrick learns that Owen has secured the Fisher account as well as reservations at Dorsia, New York’s most exclusive new restaurant.
    [Show full text]
  • Simply Not There: Externality Versus Internal Identity in American Psycho
    Simply Not There: Externality versus Internal Identity in American Psycho BY DERIK COOL The executive world of 1980’s New York is not commonly considered one of discord and debauchery. Instead, trends of modernity, class, and style may color images of such times. Although not wholly untrue, these visions are not nearly so limited or so innocent. In her 2000 film, American Psycho, Mary Harron depicts characters living at the peak of grandeur, with a heavy underscore on the grotesque. Due to their overtly extravagant lifestyle and obsession with appearance, the characters have largely become stark, empty canvases incapable of individuality and able only to perform the simplest of actions: consume. Not only are the characters entirely absorbed in the microcosmic world of privilege and substance they’ve created, but they are completely oblivious to the actions of those around them. This creates a distorted reality where internalization becomes meaningless, if not impossible, and only concepts such as conformity and exteriority prevail. It is in this plane that the film attempts to explore its characters and make sense of their situations. Rather than relying on traditional internal characteristics, American Psycho develops and defines its characters entirely through the use of external objects and consumerist actions, poignantly demonstrating the superficiality and emotional shallowness that ultimately leads to an eroding of self definition and ability to form meaningful relationships. Valley Humanities Review Spring 2012 1 While in the traditional sense of literary practice characters are typically constructed and discerned through their unique characterization and individual personality traits, this method simply does not hold true for the characters of American Psycho.
    [Show full text]
  • American Psycho
    Pastiche and Abjection in American Psycho Cristina Ghita English Studies- Literary Option Bachelor Level 15 ECTS credits Spring Semester 2014 Supervisor: Asko Kauppinen Table of Contents 1. Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 1 2. The Postmodernism of American Psycho ........................................................................ 5 2.1. Genre Issues ................................................................................................................... 5 2.2. American Psycho as a Postmodern Novel .................................................................... 8 3. American Psycho as Pastiche .......................................................................................... 12 3.1. Pastiche as "Cultural Memory" ................................................................................ 12 3.2. Innovative Repetition .................................................................................................. 14 3.3. Pastiche Elements in American Psycho ...................................................................... 16 4. Abjection and Violence in American Psycho ................................................................ 23 4.1. Abjection ...................................................................................................................... 23 4.2. The Abjection in American Psycho ............................................................................ 24 4.3. The Violence
    [Show full text]