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American Psycho

American Psycho. Bret Easton Ellis. Overview. The protagonist and narrator is Patrick Bateman, a young very successful Wall Street dealer who is also a psychopathic killer. American Dream Unconventional form Descriptive narrative. Methods of Self-Control. Being in control of surroundings

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American Psycho

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  1. American Psycho Bret Easton Ellis

  2. Overview • The protagonist and narrator is Patrick Bateman, a young very successful Wall Street dealer who is also a psychopathic killer. • American Dream • Unconventional form • Descriptive narrative

  3. Methods of Self-Control • Being in control of surroundings • Routine • Shift of focus away from people

  4. When it All Comes Apart… • Loss of composure • Near debilitating panic attacks • Lack of morality • Violence and cruelty

  5. Yuppie-ism vs. the individual Yuppie: 1. –noun (often initial capital letter ) a young, ambitious, and well-educated city-dweller who has a professional career and an affluent lifestyle. 2. a young, ambitious, professional person who earns a lot of money and spends it on fashionable things 3. 1982, acronym from "young urban professional," ousting competition from yumpie (1984), from "young upward-mobile professional," and yap (1984), from "young aspiring professional." The word was felt as an insult by 1985. Individual: 1. –noun a single human being, as distinguished from a group. 2. a person: a strange individual. 3. a distinct, indivisible entity; a single thing, being, instance, or item. )

  6. Identity - Others • Bateman is not aware of the identities of the majority of people in his life: • “Thank you, uh…Samantha” (85) • “a very pretty homeless girl” (85) • “Someone who looks like…” • Recognition of people based on clothing, sex, race, occupation, etc.

  7. Identity - Self • When is Patrick Bateman called Patrick Bateman? • “Owen has mistaken me for Marcus Halberstam (even though Marcus in dating Cecelia Wagner) but for some reason it really doesn’t matter and it seems a logical faux pas since…” (89) • Same jobs, same clothes, same difference?

  8. The Consequences • Who’s who? • Obvious social critique by Ellis • “Kill…All…Yuppies.” (374) • Is Patrick Bateman unique? • Potential for violence • Questioning of reality

  9. Questionable Reality • Unreported murders • Multiple witnesses • Unreliable narrator • Contradictions

  10. Textual Examples • New Club He stares at me as if we are both underwater and shouts back, very clearly over the din of the club, "Because... I had... dinner... with Paul Owen... twice... in London... just ten days ago.“ After we stare at each other for what seems like a minute, I finally have the nerve to say something back to him but my voice lacks any authority, and I'm not sure if I believe myself when I tell him, simply, "No, you... didn't." But it comes out a question, not a statement. (388) • Taxi Driver "Man, your face is on a wanted poster downtown," he says, unflinching. "I think I would like to stop here," I manage to croak out. "You're the guy, right?" He's looking at me like I'm some kind of viper. [...] "You kill Solly," he says, definitely recognizing me from somewhere, cutting another denial on my part by growling, "You son-of-a-bitch." (392)

  11. Implications • Hallucinations • Detachment from society • Fantasies as coping method • Real murders • Absolute consumerist society • Everything is disposable • Women/ethnic minorities are objects

  12. Sex, Gender and Violence • Social commentary now used as justification for the descriptions of sexual violence against women • Gender difference in the murder descriptions of men and women • Men: the scenes are short, more public, asexual • Women: scenes are highly detailed, described ornately, sexualized, occur in private locations

  13. Feminist Critique • Mary Harron (2000): “Although many scenes are excruciatingly violent, it was clearly intended as a critique of male misogyny, not an endorsement of it”. (Caputi, p. 146) • Women represent a lack of power in society. The “others” to whom sexual violence naturally occurs

  14. “Crisis of Masculinity” • Traditional male characteristics to the extreme • Protection of dominant position as hegemonic male • Pornography and “real” sex, his relationships with women, the business cards, the AIDS scare, and “others” in society all represent challenges to patriarchal supremacy

  15. The Ultimate Objectification • “There’s this theory out now that if you can catch the AIDS virus through having sex with someone who is infected then you can also catch anything, whether it’s a virus per se or not – Alzheimer’s, muscular dystrophy, hemophilia, leukemia, anorexia, diabetes, cancer, multiple sclerosis, cystic fibrosis, cerebral palsy, dyslexia, for Christ sakes – you can get dyslexia from pussy. (p. 5) • “And as things fell apart/ Nobody paid much attention” (p. 1)

  16. Works Cited • Ellis, Bret Easton. American Psycho. New York: Vintage, 1991. • “Individual.” 25 March 2008 <http://www.dictionary.com> • “Yuppie.” 25 March 2008. http://www.dictionary.com • Caputi, Jane. Goddesses and Monsters: Women, Myth, Power and Popular Culture. Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 2004. • Storey, Mark. “‘And as things fell apart’: The Crisis of Postmodern Masculinity in Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho and Dennis Cooper’s Frisk.” Critique 47.1 (2005): 57-72. • Tighe, Carl. Writing and Responsibility. New York: Taylor & Francis Routeldge, 2005.

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