This paper1 aims to analyze the figure of Patrick Bateman, the protagonist of the novel American Psycho,2 through René Girard's mimetic theory. It links the character created by Bret Easton Ellis to the concept of caricatural “ultra-Christianity,” meaning the degeneration of Christian-based concern for innocent victims. Methodologically, it adopts the approach of the sociology of the imaginary, which is characterized by the division between invisible levels of signification and visible elements of culture. The latter, as a set of representations, narratives, and products, both material and ideal, are influenced by the former, which represent their condition of possibility.3 When considering caricatural “ultra-Christianity” as a phenomenon traceable to the “Regimes of the Imaginary” of the sacred,4 it can be regarded as the deep substratum from which Patrick Bateman's particular idiocy emerges as a paranoid and victimistic intensification of mimetic desire.

(2024). The Idiot Patrick Bateman: A New Configuration of Caricatural “Ultra-Christianity” [journal article - articolo]. In CONTAGION. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10446/280171

The Idiot Patrick Bateman: A New Configuration of Caricatural “Ultra-Christianity”

Arcuri, Fabrizio
2024-01-01

Abstract

This paper1 aims to analyze the figure of Patrick Bateman, the protagonist of the novel American Psycho,2 through René Girard's mimetic theory. It links the character created by Bret Easton Ellis to the concept of caricatural “ultra-Christianity,” meaning the degeneration of Christian-based concern for innocent victims. Methodologically, it adopts the approach of the sociology of the imaginary, which is characterized by the division between invisible levels of signification and visible elements of culture. The latter, as a set of representations, narratives, and products, both material and ideal, are influenced by the former, which represent their condition of possibility.3 When considering caricatural “ultra-Christianity” as a phenomenon traceable to the “Regimes of the Imaginary” of the sacred,4 it can be regarded as the deep substratum from which Patrick Bateman's particular idiocy emerges as a paranoid and victimistic intensification of mimetic desire.
articolo
2024
Arcuri, Fabrizio
(2024). The Idiot Patrick Bateman: A New Configuration of Caricatural “Ultra-Christianity” [journal article - articolo]. In CONTAGION. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10446/280171
File allegato/i alla scheda:
File Dimensione del file Formato  
retrieve.pdf

Solo gestori di archivio

Descrizione: The Idiot Patrick Bateman - Fabrizio Arcuri
Versione: publisher's version - versione editoriale
Licenza: Licenza default Aisberg
Dimensione del file 339.21 kB
Formato Adobe PDF
339.21 kB Adobe PDF   Visualizza/Apri
Pubblicazioni consigliate

Aisberg ©2008 Servizi bibliotecari, Università degli studi di Bergamo | Terms of use/Condizioni di utilizzo

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/10446/280171
Citazioni
  • Scopus 0
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? ND
social impact