Staging (Dis)connections between the individual and the mass in contemporary literature : from the pathological “Mass in person” to the globalized subject
Part of : Γράμμα : περιοδικό θεωρίας και κριτικής ; Vol.18, No.1, 2010, pages 205-220
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205-220
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Individuality, subjectivity and community in mass-mediated, “abstract” society
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This article examines literary stagings of the relationship between the individual and the mass in contemporary literature by drawing on four case studies: Bret Easton Ellis ’s American Psycho (1991), Jon McGregor’s If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things (2002), David Mitchell’s Ghostwritten (1999) and David Harrower’s play Kill the Old Torture Their Young (1998). Ellis and Harrower foreground the erosion of subjectivity within today’s abstract society. The dark satire of Ellis’s novel highlights how the cynicism of the information age and capitalist exchange reduces the individual to a pathological “mass in person.” The depersonalization of social inter action also takes centre stage in Harrower’s play. In contrast, McGregor’s novel depicts the individual as part of an organic whole, which allows for spiritual connectivity transcending factors such as gender or ethnicity. A different take on the individual and the mass is offered by Ghostwritten insofar as it accentuates the interconnectivity of individuals in a globalized world and how power dynamics shape the interplay of the global and local.
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Περιέχει βιβλιογραφία.The individual and the mass: literary and cultural reflections
