Deconstructing Bret Easton Ellis : a Derridean reading of the fiction / Annette Schimmelpfennig.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Schimmelpfennig, Annette, 1986- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ellis, Bret Easton--Criticism and interpretation.

Ellis, Bret Easton.

Criticism and interpretation.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Literary criticism.

Physical Description:

vii, 220 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Jefferson, North Carolina : McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, [2021]

Summary:

"Riddled with intertextual references and notorious for their explicit portrayal of sex, drugs, and the occasional rock 'n' roll, the novels of Bret Easton Ellis offer themselves for deconstruction to reveal their many interpretational layers. This book argues that Ellis's novels, often accused of not making sense, make, instead, many senses. Their semantic complexity becomes especially obvious when put under a theoretical lens as provided by Jacques Derrida. His semiotic analysis, which focuses on the instability of meaning and is shaped by key terms such as differance, the trace, and the supplement, offers the ideal framework to look behind Ellis's infamous obsession with surfaces. Aimed at aficionados of Ellis's works, as well as students of contemporary American fiction and literary theory, these chapters discuss the central issues in Ellis's novels through 2019 and simultaneously offer a new perspective for the practical use of Derrida's ideas. In order to ensure accessibility, a theoretical chapter introduces all the concepts necessary to understand a Derridean analysis of Ellis's fiction. As Rip says in Imperial Bedrooms: "It means so many things, Clay.""-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

1 Derrida, Ellis and the (De)Construction of Literary Fiction p. 9

2 Style p. 16

3 Reading Bret Easton Ellis: Same but with Différance p. 53

4 Pattern Recognition: Common Themes and Recurring Motifs in Ellis's Fiction p. 178

5 "It all comes down to this": Conclusion p. 200.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781476681306

1476681309

OCLC:

1250205933