Carnival Mirror Images The American Criminal as Protagonist in Capote's In Cold Blood, Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley, and Nolan's Memento
Date of Award
2003
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelors
Department
Humanities
First Advisor
Dimino, Andrea
Keywords
Crime, Literature, Protagonist
Area of Concentration
British and American Literature
Abstract
After the second World War, many American works about crime employ techniques that make the reader complicit with their criminal protagonists. Some of the ways in which this is done include the manipulation of suspense, point of view, and perspective. The authorial control over the amount of knowledge allowed the reader as well as the limited view of the world presented in the text or film both act to establish identification between the reader and the criminal protagonist. The three texts I chose to work with are significant because they divorce the reader from the protagonist after establishing a connection between the two. This is done through the challenge to identity: all three texts present identity as being nothing more than a role or performance, solely consisting of a sum of the superficial details and rituals of everyday life. Truman Capote's 'nonfiction novel' In Cold Blood (1965), Patricia Highsmith's novel The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955), and Christopher Nolan's film Memento (2001) all represent a movement within the genre of crime fiction toward a dissolution of the self, which extends to the structures of society. These texts demand active participation on the part of the reader; the ultimate divorce results in a questioning of their own complicity and their assumptions about the nature of identity.
Recommended Citation
Jetton, Laura, "Carnival Mirror Images The American Criminal as Protagonist in Capote's In Cold Blood, Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley, and Nolan's Memento" (2003). Theses & ETDs. 3253.
https://digitalcommons.ncf.edu/theses_etds/3253
Rights
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