“A man obsessed”: the nature of evil and alienation in Hubert Selby Jr.’s “Last Exit to Brooklyn” and Bret Easton Ellis’s “American Psycho”
Abstract
The research aims to identify the specifics of the artistic interpretation of the nature of evil and existential alienation in Hubert Selby Jr.’s novel “Last Exit to Brooklyn” and Bret Easton Ellis’s novel “American Psycho”. A comparative analysis of these works has not been undertaken to date, although their plot and thematic parallels and their shared aim of debunking the American Dream have been repeatedly noted in literary criticism. The article presents a sequential analysis of the novels: it traces the development of the protagonist’s obsession in “Last Exit to Brooklyn” from intrusive impulses to spiritual collapse; it identifies the socially constructed categories of simulation and the disappearance of the subject in “American Psycho”; and it establishes the narrative and philosophical-religious points of convergence and divergence between the outwardly similar characters of the studied texts. The scientific originality of the research lies in identifying a model of existential alienation that unites the novels: the internal, ontological mechanism of personality degradation in “Last Exit to Brooklyn” correlates with external, simulational depersonalization in “American Psycho”. The obtained results demonstrate that the novels form a complementary concept for the representation of evil in late 20th-century American literature: in Selby’s work, evil is rooted in the structure of the subject experiencing a sense of God-abandonment, while in Ellis’s work, it emerges as a product of the media-simulational environment.
Research materials
- Селби Х. Бес / пер. с англ. И. Карич. Тверь: Kolonna Publications, 2017.
- Эллис Б. И. К. Американский психопат / пер. с англ. В. Ярцева, Т. Покидаевой. СПб.: Азбука, Азбука-Аттикус, 2023.
- Ellis B. E. American Psycho. L.: Picador, 2011.
- O’Brien J. A Conversation with Hubert Selby // The Review of Contemporary Fiction. 1981. Vol. 12.
- Selby H. Jr. The Demon. L.: Marion Boyars Publishers, 2002.
- Williams M. An audience with Bret Easton Ellis (Interview with Bret E. Ellis) // Square Mile. 2020. https://squaremile.com/culture/books/bret-easton-ellis-white-interview/
References
- Бодрийяр Ж. Общество потребления / пер. с фр. Е. Самарской. М.: Издательство АСТ, 2020.
- Бодрийяр Ж. Симулякры и симуляция / пер. с фр. А. Качалова. СПб.: Издательский дом Постум, 2015.
- Дебор Г. Общество спектакля / пер. с фр. С. Офертаса. М.: Издательство АСТ, 2025.
- Прозоров В. В. В «экзистенциальной пропасти» потребления. Роман Б. И. Эллиса «Американский психопат» // Вопросы литературы. 2007. № 6.
- AlGhufauli M. A. Object relations theory as a means to understand the formation and development of drug addiction in “Requiem for a dream” by Hubert Selby Jr. // Social Sciences & Humanities Open. 2025. Vol. 12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssaho.2025.101849
- Allué S. B. The Aesthetics of Serial Killing: Working against Ethics in “The Silence of the Lambs” (1988) and “American Psycho” (1991) // Atlantis. 2002. Vol. 24. № 2.
- Bowers A. L. “As Un-American as Rabies”: Addiction and Identity in American Postwar Junkie Literature: PhD dis. Texas, 2009.
- Eldridge D. The Generic American Psycho // Journal of American Studies. 2008. Vol. 42. № 1.
- Evans Ch. Hubert Selby Jr: Dissecting the American Dream // Medium. 2016. https://charlesevans.medium.com/hubert-selby-jr-dissecting-the-american-dream-a7f655f61777
- Giles J. R. Understanding Hubert Selby, Jr. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1998.
- Khodadadi N., Shabanirad E. A Study of Emile Durkheim's Concept of Anomie in Hubert Selby's Novel “Requiem for a Dream” // International Letters of Social and Humanistic. 2015. Vol. 62.
- Lee S. S. Fiction As a Conversation: Unreliable Narrators, Pop Culture, and Violence in David Foster Wallace’s “Girl with Curious Hair” and Bret Easton Ellis’s “American Psycho” // Hungarian Journal of English and American Studies. 2023. Vol. 29. № 1.
- Leggatt M. Play in Utopian and Dystopian Fiction. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2025.
- Messier V. P. Errancies of Desire: Monstrous Masculinities across the Atlantic. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2023.
- Metcalf P. Herman and Hubert: The Odd Couple // Review of Contemporary Fiction. 1981. Vol. 1. № 2.
- Muniowski L. Urban Tensions. Hubert Selby Jr.'s “Last Exit to Brooklyn” // Localities. 2016. Vol. 5.
- Parreno C. Entwined Spaces of Boredom, Desire, and Transgression // Transgression in the Architectures of After-Modernity: A Paradigm at Work in Times of Crises / ed. by C. Popescu. Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2025.
- Sabir A. The Silent Suffering of Men: Exploring Mental Health and Exploitation in “Requiem for a Dream” by Hubert Selby Jr. through a Societal Lens // Migration Letters. 2024. Vol. 21. № S10.
- Schenk S. The Concept of the Game in American Literature: True Freedom and a Mistaken Idea of Freedom. Berlin: Peter Lang GmbH; Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften, 2022.
- Serpell C. N. Seven Modes of Uncertainty. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2014.
- Weinreich M. “Into the Void”: The Hyperrealism of Simulation in Bret Easton Ellis's “American Psycho” // Amerikastudien. 2004. Vol. 49. № 1.
- Zavaleta B. What’s with “American Psycho” These Days? Why is it so popular and who’s to blame? // Medium. 2022. https://medium.com/@BZP/whats-with-american-psycho-these-days-77e2aefed85d
Author information
About this article
Publication history
- Received: December 4, 2025.
- Published: January 26, 2026.
Keywords
- Хьюберт Селби
- Брет Истон Эллис
- образ экзистенциального отчуждения
- американская мечта в художественной литературе
- мотив богооставленности в литературе США
- Hubert Selby Jr
- Bret Easton Ellis
- image of existential alienation
- American Dream in fiction
- motif of God-abandonment in US literature
Copyright
© 2026 The Author(s)
© 2026 Gramota Publishing, LLC