“Abandon All Hope” - consumerism and loss of identity in Bret Easton Ellis’s "American Psycho" as an example of blank fiction

In comparison to selected modernist writings

Thesis (M.A.) , 2005 , 109 Pages , Grade: 1,5

American Studies - Literature

Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho has been labeled many things from “Brat Pack Fiction” to “Generation X” to “Minimal Realism”. While the classification of the novel might be difficult and it has often been misunderstood for its extremely violent scenes, what is clear to the attentive reader is its critique of consumer culture

Critics have acknowledged an emergence of a large number of writings dealing with this topic in contemporary American literature in the recent past. These novels focus on the relationship of American youth with consumer culture with a seemingly non-elaborate content and style. Attempts of explaining this kind of writing, which has also been called “fiction of insurgency”, “new narrative”, “downtown writing” and “punk fiction”, range from millennial angst to the classification of this literary movement as part of the postmodern culture.

What seems clear is that these narrations are closely related to the society they have been created in. The way these texts incorporate products of their time as a constant accompanying element places them very clearly in a specific time period. The apparent non-existence of complexity concerning the style, which at times reminds the reader of a movie script or a sequence of an MTV video, has, in the case of American Psycho, caused many critics to classify the novel as boring and deny the author the status of an artist. Exactly this seeming meaninglessness of these novels argues in favor of a term introduced by critics James Annesley and Elizabeth Young:

Blank fiction, or Blank Generation Fiction. The term Blank fiction seems to capture perfectly the emptiness created by consumer culture that has found its way into these narratives not simply in its context but also by means of its language, incorporating consumer goods into the narrative as secondary characters, in the case of American Psycho ascribing more character to these objects than to the protagonists.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Blank Fiction
  • A new direction of culture and literature
    • Blank Fiction and Postmodernism: attempts to classify a new literary movement
    • Fiction within a cultural context: Consumer Culture as a defining factor of Blank Fiction
  • American Psycho as Blank Fiction
• Consumer Culture in Literature - A Recent Development?
• Consumerism and Loss of Identity
  • Belongingness or: Trying to Fit In
    • Labels
      • Fashion
      • Otherness
      • Looks
      • Narcissism
      • Choice: Shopping and Accumulation
    • Food and Restaurants
    • Drugs and Drinks
    • Producer or Product?
  • Reality
    • Narrator Reliability
      • Violence
      • Voice
        • Changes in Tense and Point of View
        • Music
    • Media
  • "This is not an Exit"
    • Circularity
    • "Abandon all Hope"
      • Values
      • History. Or: Past, Present, Future
• Conclusion

Objectives and Key Themes

This paper analyzes the portrayal of consumer culture in Bret Easton Ellis's novel American Psycho, comparing it to the treatment of consumerism in selected works by modernist writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. The main objective is to highlight the differences between both the effects and the treatment of consumerism in Blank Fiction and modernism. The paper explores the deep immersion in consumer culture of both author and protagonists of Blank Fiction, a stark contrast to the world of the rich in Fitzgerald's novels. It argues that Blank Fiction, through its style and content, mirrors the superficiality of consumer culture.

• The rise of Blank Fiction as a literary movement in contemporary American literature.
• The relationship between consumer culture and the loss of identity in Blank Fiction.
• The stylistic differences between Blank Fiction and modernist writing.
• The critique of consumer culture in American Psycho and its impact on the novel's characters.
• The cyclical nature of consumption and its consequences for the protagonists and the reader.

Chapter Summaries

The introduction explores the classification of American Psycho as a literary work and highlights the growing focus on consumer culture in contemporary American literature. It introduces the concept of Blank Fiction as a literary movement that reflects the emptiness and superficiality of consumer culture. Chapter 1 provides a detailed analysis of Blank Fiction, exploring its characteristics, its relationship to postmodernism, and its defining factor: consumer culture. This chapter also focuses on American Psycho as an example of Blank Fiction and its use of consumer goods as secondary characters.

Chapter 2 examines the evolution of consumer culture in literature, tracing its presence in American fiction from the works of F. Scott Fitzgerald to the emergence of Blank Fiction. Chapter 3 delves into the themes of consumerism and loss of identity, exploring the ways in which characters like Patrick Bateman seek belonging through consumption. It discusses how the pursuit of material possessions and the constant exposure to advertising contribute to a sense of emptiness and a lack of individual identity.

The chapter also examines the role of labels, fashion, food, and drugs in defining identity within the context of consumer culture. Finally, it explores the issue of narrator reliability and the ambiguity surrounding the violence depicted in the novel.

The final section, "This is not an Exit," examines the circularity of consumption and its impact on the characters and the reader. It explores the themes of "abandon all hope," the loss of values, and the absence of a clear past, present, or future within the context of consumer culture. This section highlights the cyclical nature of consumption, its role in creating a sense of entrapment, and its ultimate consequence: the loss of individual identity.

Keywords

Blank Fiction, consumer culture, loss of identity, American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis, F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, Tender is the Night, postmodernism, millennial angst, fiction of insurgency, new narrative, downtown writing, punk fiction, advertising, materialism, superficiality, emptiness, violence, narrator reliability, circularity, entrapment, "abandon all hope," postmodernism.

• College: University of Hamburg (Sprach-, Literatur- und Medienwissenschaft)
• Grade: 1,5
• Author: Anja Schiel (Author)
• Publication Year: 2005
• Pages: 109
• Catalog Number: V90034
• ISBN (eBook): 9783638039666
• ISBN (Book): 9783638936422
• Language: English
• Tags: Hope”, Bret, Easton, Ellis’s, American, Psycho