Rymajdo, Kamila (2018) Why is everyone not falling in love? : Love, sex and neoliberalism in film adaptations of Bret Easton Ellis’ works. In: Mazierska, Ewa and Kristensen, Lars, (eds.) Contemporary cinema and neoliberal ideology. London, U.K. : Routledge. pp. 202-216. ISBN 9781315304069

Abstract

Ellis is a writer who is widely regarded as one of the greatest prophets of neoliberalism, thanks to his presentation of the acceleration of its domination. Patrick Bateman might be the perfect depiction of a substance-less yuppie, but in the books preceding American Psycho Ellis shows a world where there is still a possibility for characters to fall in love and for sex to be transgressive. The term 'erotic capital' was first used by Catherine Hakim in Honey Money to describe the fourth type of personal asset, the other three being economic capital, cultural capital and social capital, terms first introduced 'in 1983 by the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu'. In American Psycho Ellis presents the implosion of neoliberalism, and also here the possibility for love and sex to act as tools of resistance is seemingly abandoned. The focus on death in American Psycho can also be read as what Freud sees as the natural progression of a love relationship.

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