Analysis 5 (Postmodernism & American Psycho)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGeAMVK75T4

Postmodernism is a term first explored during the late nineteenth century. A whole century later, roughly 1950-1960, the phenomenon was applied to everyday life.  In the above link from YouTube, the film “American Psycho” directed by Mary Harron is a perfect example of postmodernism. We see Patrick Bateman, the main character, describing himself to “have all the characteristics of a human being: blood, flesh, skin, hair; but not a single, clear, identifiable emotion, except for greed and disgust.” (Patrick Bateman) He says, “there is an idea of a Patrick Bateman; some kind of abstraction. But there is no real me: only an entity, something illusory. And though I can hide my cold gaze, and you can shake my hand and feel flesh gripping yours and maybe you can even sense our lifestyles are probably comparable... I simply am not there.” (Patrick Bateman) This image of Bateman is developed to create an ideology of the current society Bateman is living in. Bateman and the phenomenon, postmodernism are the idea that nothing is real and or genuine and that everything is a copy of something that’s already been duplicated. The standpoint is frequently in the first person, thereby indicating his self-obsession and pursuant of his individuality, but also his desire to integrate Lyotard suggest that postmodernism is continually redefined and this goes for Patrick Bateman. He is always trying to redefine himself. It might be through is physical appearance and or that of his business card or where he dines.  He seems as though his personality, his image, and life is all made up, like he’s a empty soul living in a live flesh body. In the Postmodern Condition, Lyotard says “what at one moment challenges our ideas, our sense of how things are, becomes, at the next moment, that which we seek to challenge.” Lyotard also says that “today we can presume that this breaking is rather a manner of forgetting or repressing the past. That’s to say of repeating it. Not overcoming it.” For Patrick, the life he’s living may as well be a fantasy, and to the audience this is a possibility at certain points. American Psycho ends with, the bang “THIS IS NOT AN EXIT.” As Lyotard says, “from this point, it would be necessary to consider the division of mankind into two parts: one part confronted with the challenge of complexity; the other with the terrible ancient task of survival. This is a major aspect of the failure if the modern project (Which was, in principle, valid for mankind as a whole.”

Works Cited:

Lyotard. "Defining the Postmodern". ed. Leitch, Vincent B. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. 2nd ed. New York: W. W. Norton &, 2010. Print.

Foucalt. "Discipline and Punish". ed. Leitch, Vincent B. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. 2nd ed. New York: W. W. Norton &, 2010. Print.

"American Psycho “Morning Routine."YouTube.  9 May. 2009. Web. 23 Apr. 2011. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46-WNPlCYsg