American Gothic: Liminality in Thomas Harris's Hannibal Lecter Novels

Messent, Peter

doi:10.1111/j.1537-4726.2000.2304_23.x

Cited by 7 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…Some have argued that she represents the rule of technology and reason (Platt, 2013), but her talent, like Graham"s, resembles a form of capricious and mysterious intuition. 8 Similar issues have been raised concerning the possibility of considering Lecter a materialization of pure evil (Grixti, 1995;Metcalf, 1995;Messent, 2000). 9 A similar notion is presented by Bal in relation to focalization: "The image a focalizor presents of an object -Lecter in this case-says something about the focalizor itself" (1985: 153 The narrator/focalizor"s predicament does not necessarily lead to the reader"s predicament.…”

Section: Inherited Unknowingmentioning

confidence: 87%

“They don’t have a name for what he is”: The strategic de-characterization of Hannibal Lecter

Arenas

2019

ijes

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This essay challenges the myth of Hannibal Lecter, in Demme’s The Silence of the Lambs, as an enigmatic and unclassifiable character. Lecter’s enigma is generated through a largely unexplored process of de-characterization, i.e. by recurrently presenting him through the speech of other characters who describe him as unknowable. After considering Lecter’s case against the background of well-known literary unknowabilities, a deductive phenomenological exploration of Lecter’s de-characterization is carried out with the assistance of tools from the disciplines of personality and social psychology, and supported by empirical evidence from those fields. The demystifying of Lecter’s unreadability does not entail a debasement of the film or the character. On the contrary, Lecter’s de-characterization, albeit a form of narrative manipulation, is viewed as responsible for much of the film’s impact and success. It produces sensitivity-boosting effects; it mediates the indirect characterization of the other characters; and it engages the spectators’ self-image thus contributing importantly to the enjoyment and appreciation of the film.

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Section: Inherited Unknowingmentioning

confidence: 87%

“They don’t have a name for what he is”: The strategic de-characterization of Hannibal Lecter

Arenas

2019

ijes

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“…The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris (1988), where the serial killer Hannibal Lecter is a terrifyingly intelligent and cunning figure who preys on women and has a twisted relationship with the protagonist, Clarice Starling. American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis (1991), where the main character, Patrick Bateman, is a wealthy investment banker who excels as a sadistic killer (Messent, 2015). These examples reflect how Gothic literature can be used to explore the darker aspects of human existence and how it can intersect with the very real and horrific phenomenon of serial killers.…”

Section: The Development Of Serial Killer's Portrayal In Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

The Portrayal of Serial Killers in Thomas Harris’ Novel Read Dragon

Sallal

2023

Al-adab J.

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This study aims to deeply analyze the character of serial killers in Thomas Harris’ novels and focuses on his novel Red Dragon. The Study searches in these complex and deep characters through the use of Erich Fromm's concepts about the destructive nature of the human psyche and what are the factors affecting serial killers in all social psychological, and biological aspects. This study Concluded: Thomas Harris portrayed the characters of serial killers in a professional and complex and made the reader go on a contemplative journey in the mind and soul of the serial killer, thus reaching the climax of artistic perfection.

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“…In this way, our mental picture of Lecter is already established by schemata associated with murder, non-humanness, cannibalism and sociopathology, generating expectations and inferences associated with those terms (for a discussion of the text’s monstrousness moving the novel ‘beyond the borders of the detective genre [and] into territories of the Gothic and Horror’, see Messent, 2008: 15). Those expectations and inferences are important in colouring readers’ reaction to Lecter, who they get to meet alongside other inmates next.…”

Section: Thomas Harris’s Silence Of the Lambsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Schematic incongruity, conversational power play and criminal mind style in Thomas Harris’ Silence of the Lambs

Gregoriou

2020

Language and Literature: International Journal of Stylistics

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This article considers the construction of the profilers and criminals in Thomas Harris’ (2013) [1988] novel Silence of the Lambs through the analysis of selected indicative criminal mind-related extracts. The aim is to consider such characters’ construction through analysis of schematic incongruity, conversational power play, language depicting the actual fictional criminal viewpoint and, lastly, psychological profiling language, the style of which has criminal mind style ‘potential’. Schematic incongruity has a role to play in generating impressions of both the normality and abnormality of psychological profilers and the killers they pursue. Serial killers are constructed as not only physically/psychologically ‘abnormal’ but also as ‘abnormals’ amongst other ‘abnormals’ in terms of their conversational patterns, too. Where some criminals’ apparent reluctance, or inability, to accord to conversational norms marks them as uncivilised, killer/profiler Lecter’s mostly conventional conversational politeness marks him out as indirectly mocking the social norms he sometimes chooses to accord to. Where killer Gumb is concerned, profiling language and language depicting his criminal viewpoint draws on metaphors and references to killing being likened to hunting, work and art, suggesting that killing is necessary, commendable and ceremonial, the victims’ mere things to be utilised in a venture that can only be described as worthy. Though Lecter is shown to be ‘born’ into deviant behaviour, and Gumb is suggested to have been ‘made’ into a criminal, the novel undoubtedly suggests connections, similarities even, between both such character types’ extreme criminal behaviour and those wanting to understand ‘criminal minds’ through the profiling practice.

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American Gothic: Liminality in Thomas Harris's Hannibal Lecter Novels

Cited by 7 publications

References 3 publications

“They don’t have a name for what he is”: The strategic de-characterization of Hannibal Lecter

“They don’t have a name for what he is”: The strategic de-characterization of Hannibal Lecter

The Portrayal of Serial Killers in Thomas Harris’ Novel Read Dragon

Schematic incongruity, conversational power play and criminal mind style in Thomas Harris’ Silence of the Lambs

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