'At the edge of art and insanity'

Seminar paper from the year 2006 in the subject American Studies - Literature grade: 10 University of Siegen (FB 3 (Literatur- Srach- und Medienwissenschaften)) course: „Postmodern Fiction language: English abstract: With the attention-grabbing novel American Psycho Bret Easton Ellis entered quite a dangerous ground. The bizarre mixture of yuppie satire and splatter horror caused reactions of scathing criticism indignation yes even murder threat. As a consequence the publishing house that had the first contract with Ellis and was supposed to edit the novel namely Simon & Schuster responded to this radical refusal and cancelled the deal already made. This decision not to publish a book due to the negative responds against it meant another scandal since it was a sensation in the American publishing business. Anyway brushing aside all moral standards Ellis' shocker was published in 1991 by Vintage books and for a while the young writer became the meistgehaßte[...] Autor der Welt - evidently because critics considered his narration too pornographic sexist anti-women disgusting boring and beyond belief. Yet American Psycho was regarded with interest - probably last but not least because Bret Easton Ellis had been celebrated as a great talent when publishing Less than Zero. Meanwhile countless studies with many diverging approaches manifest that American Psycho may not be condemned and dismissed as a pure splatter work glorifying violence. There are works analysing the publication and the reception of the novel as well as the socio-cultural background; other studies focus on content and stylistic device or on the motif of the serial killer as postmodern anti-hero. Additionally some special analyses examine the position of the novel within the American history of censorship or even attempt to draw a parallel from Ellis' Bateman to Goethe's Faust. Thus it is substantiated that the interest in American Psycho has spread widely and