Subjectivity and Identity in <i>The Metamorphosis</i> and <i>American Psycho</i>

• Main Authors: Wei-Lin Huang, 黃瑋琳
• Other Authors: TEE Kim Tong
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2019
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/425nw6

碩士 === 國立中山大學 === 外國語文學系研究所 === 107 === Abstract This thesis tends to dissect the two forms of transformation that link to the connection of animal and human in the mold of life in The Metamorphosis and American Psycho. The aim of my thesis is to analyze the subjectivity and identity of the two protagonists, with their external/internal transformation from the aspect of theoretical biology. Transformation is an explicit motif to demonstrate the struggle of existence and identity crisis in The Metamorphosis and American Psycho. In the novella, the transformation symbolizes Gregor’s suffering from life and work and revealed his consciousness that leads himself into a self-alienated form which separates him from the outside world, an external transfiguration. In American Psycho, the protagonist Patrick is the symbolic figure of internal metamorphosis. While he appears to be a normal social elite in Wall Street, he consciously chooses to reveal the dark side of his inner personality, abandoning his rage into revenge and murder and a constant shifting identity from day to night. It also reflects the satirical phenomena of the influence of materialism and yuppie life style at the 1980s, a projection to the anomie through Patrick Bateman’s inner transfiguration. In the first and second chapters of my thesis, I want to discuss the two characters from two aspects: First, the relationship between humans and animals, how to re-analyze the two novels from a biological perspective and from a meaning-making perspective which all connecting the protagonists to the concept of umwelt from the German biologist Jakob von Uexküll. Chapter Three aims to the issues of the two protagonist’s identity, I will delve into the philosophical concept to the protagonist’s dilemma of existence and identity issue. My aim is to find the subjectivities and identities from theoretical biology as a method of my research.