From Toxic to Politically Correct : Masculinities in American Psycho and Darkly Dreaming Dexter

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216224%3A14210%2F18%3A00105898" target="_blank" >RIV/00216224:14210/18:00105898 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://paris2018.sched.com/" target="_blank" >https://paris2018.sched.com/</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

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Result language

angličtina

Original language name

From Toxic to Politically Correct : Masculinities in American Psycho and Darkly Dreaming Dexter

Original language description

American Psycho (1991) and Darkly Dreaming Dexter (2004) are two American novels known for having serial killers for protagonists. The gender performances of these two self-proclaimed psychopaths, however, could not be more different; one brings traditional portrayals of violent masculinity to extremes, while the other invents a new take on fictional masculinity. With his desire to punish women, desperation to one-up other men, and frequent attacks of gay panic, American Psycho’s protagonist Patrick Bateman presents the worst extreme of hegemonic masculinity (as discussed by Connell, O’Neil and others). Driven by his fragile nerves and an even more fragile ego, Patrick often loses control and kills innocent people, his violence all the more heinous and sexualized if the target is a woman. The protagonist of the Dexter series, on the other hand, is an asexual man who has no interest in sexualized violence. Self-possessed, cool-headed, and rational, he knows how to control his bloodlust and channel it productively by hunting other murderers. In pretending to be unremarkable, he positions himself as a submissive man, yet his ego is never threatened by women or other men. Jeff Lindsay’s Dexter Morgan is proof that you can successfully write about a monstrous serial killer in a genre based on hypermasculine tropes without having your protagonist perpetuate the ideals of hegemonic masculinity.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

O - Miscellaneous

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

60203 - Linguistics

Project

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Continuities

S - Specificky vyzkum na vysokych skolach

Publication year

2018

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů