American Psycho

Dystopian Fiction Has Been Moved to Current Affairs

In our Halloween special, and 25th episode, Clare and Masha are discussing the 2000 film American Psycho and the 1991 novel by Brett Easton Ellis on which it was based.

In our analysis, we approach American Psycho as a dystopia in which Patrick Bateman represents the everyman of 1980s Wall Street, and his construction of his identity is mimetic and post-modern, just like the complex genre of the film and novel.

We discuss the allegations of that the film is misogynistic, on the one hand, and the claims for its feminism on another. We consider the place of constructed and empty concepts of masculinity, and the modern equivalent among followers of Trump, widely featured in the text, and Andrew Tate or his ilk.

We consider the film's critique of consumerism with respect to aesthetics, music, restaurants, and political views. We also look at the nature of the text as satire and its use of parody.

Among other secondary sources, the following were of particular influence on our ideas:

• Eldridge, David. “The Generic American Psycho.” Journal of American Studies 42, no. 1 (2008): 19–33. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40464237.
• Moore, Casey. “We’re Not Through Yet: The Patrick Bateman Debate.” The Comparatist 36 (2012): 226–47. http://www.jstor.org/stable/26237305.
• Rogers, Martin. “Video Nasties and the Monstrous Bodies of ‘American Psycho.’” Literature/Film Quarterly 39, no. 3 (2011): 231–44. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43798793.
• Schoene, Berthold. “SERIAL MASCULINITY: PSYCHOPATHOLOGY AND OEDIPAL VIOLENCE IN BRET EASTON ELLIS’S ‘AMERICAN PSYCHO.’” Modern Fiction Studies 54, no. 2 (2008): 378–97. http://www.jstor.org/stable/26287627.

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