Moje ciało, tożsamość, choroba. Dyskurs męskości w American Psycho i Podziemnym kręgu
My body, identity, illness. Discourse of masculinity in „American Psycho” and „Fight Club”

Author(s): Agnieszka Nieracka
Subject(s): Studies of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Summary/Abstract: The‑turn‑of‑the‑century human bodily identity is involved in a number of paradoxes inherited from various concepts of ‘existential connection’ between the physical and the psychic. Let us emphasise the contemporary expressiveness of body image in culture, the characteristic overvaluing of the body in the discourse of masculinity in contemporary cinema. The overvaluing at the same time unveils a serious crisis of masculinity (as a spectacle) visible in the analysed films. Presented images of male bodies are accompanied by ‘uncertain’ identity — the protagonists are, after all, men who, in addition to experiencing a cultural crisis, are ill. Bateman’s actions are influenced by the logic of anorexia (American Psycho) and the Narrator in Fight Club is a schizophrenic suffering from chronic insomnia. It was not my intention, however, to analyse the film protagonists (at least it was not the most important aspect), instead I attempted a close reading of the narrative construction. Analysing formal structures of the films, I reflect on the level of film expression. Constructions of the film space‑time reveal the conflict of split personality (a particular kind of ‘spatialisation’ of this conflict) as well as lead to reflexivity, self‑awareness of the cinema. After all, subjective narrative, gaze circulation present in both films, leads to disgrace of male gaze.

• Details
• Contents