Abstract
This chapter argues that Bret Easton Ellis uses satire and parody to create an effect similar to the marvelous, outlined in Tzvetan Todorov’s theory of the fantastic. Both satire and parody are devices used in Ellis’s postmodern horror novels to create hesitation between real and imagined states. These devices are also used to create a sense of instability and unreliability with regard to the narrator. Ellis, in a familiarly postmodern manner, names himself as narrator. His self-mocking and humorous tone aids in undermining the role of the author and the position of the novel. Arguably the most horrifying aspect of Ellis’s texts is hesitation—stability and unity appear forever lost.
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Notes
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For Ellis , this spans from New Hollywood to the 1970s, rather than the 1930s–1950s.
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One example of an extreme reaction to American Psycho is Tara Baxter and Nikki Craft’s essay, “There are better ways of taking care of Bret Easton Ellis than just censoring him…” in Making Violence Sexy, in which Baxter advocates physical violence toward men who promote misogyny and violence against women.
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Findlay, L. (2018). Hesitation Marks: The Fantastic and the Satirical in Postmodern Horror. In: Corstorphine, K., Kremmel, L. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook to Horror Literature. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97406-4_36
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