American Double / American Psycho and the Writer’s Block

Abstract

The article focuses on American fiction and detective thrillers where the writer and his double feature as central characters. Such a combination has not previously received special attention. The divided mind provides a wide range of possibilities for fascination and exploring the fundamental fears of fragmentation and potential destruction of the Self. In Stephen King’s novella “Secret Window, Secret Garden” (1990), crime, duplicity, madness and dissociative amnesia are integrated into the story of the writer's block. The present article, among other things, analyzes the adaptation of the novella — David Koepp’s Secret Window, 2004. Besides, it highlights the changes that the script underwent. Koepp came up with his own ending that was radically different from the Epilogue of King's story. Alongside with madness proper, King's horror and Koepp's film deconstruct the writer’s block as the result of unresolved traumas and the cause of a whole bunch of pathologies, as well as the fear of breakdown. The novella and its screen version are, in fact, phenomenological studies of mental disorders. A close comparative analysis shows that the film offers a rare example of the superiority of adaptation over the original. A particular attention in the article is paid to the imagery of ears of corn in the film, functioning both as a cannibalistic grotesque and as a visual metaphor of success.

Keywords

• the writer’s double
• crime
• madness
• dissociative amnesia
• writer’s block
• stephen king
• david koepp
• fear of breakdown
• fascination