Untitled - Sexey's School Moodle

ecome inescapably appealing. The stylistic devices employed by Ellis compel the
reader to long for the scenes of sexual violence as they become the sole plausible point of
interest. In order to clarify the ways in which American Psycho is able to play with the
reader’s feelings of revulsion and fascination, this next section will take an in-depth look
at how the novel affects the response of the reader both emotionally and psychologically.
To discuss the latter, some of Freud’s theory of the “Uncanny” seems particularly well-
suited, while an analysis of the former will address what has been called Ellis’
“politics/aesthetics of boredom” by critics. 22 Bateman’s point of view is the sole narrative
voice of American Psycho, as pointed out earlier; it does not allow the reader to distance
him/herself, and coerces him/her to assume the role of a participant. Adopting the
victim’s point of view is equally if not more unpleasant—“this is not an exit” the novel
reminds us—and Bateman’s point of view quickly reasserts itself.
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In American Psycho, the Uncanny manifests itself on two levels. For one, as a
narrator, Bateman does not possess an affective filter and uses either a purely formal
syntax and/or a quasi-uninflected speech to describe all events, whether taking a shower,
having sexual intercourse, or brutally mutilating his victims. What is particularly
unheimlich is that the murder scenes are of such an explicitly gruesome nature that some
readers may find themselves virtually unable to continue reading, while others may find
these passages truly enthralling—a duality which closely echoes society’s relationship
with the taboo as pointed out in Chapter Two. What unravels in this process of
revulsion/fascination is that Bateman appears to be the perfect case study for
psychoanalytical study. Freud insists that most repressed feelings contained in the
22 Such as Elizabeth Young, Marco Abel, and Julian Murphet