Psychopath as a New Hero of Postmodern Literature (Based on a Study of Transformation of the Image of Genius in Patrick Suskind‛s Novel, Perfume. The Story of a Murderer)

Abstract

This article examines the treatment of the literature of postmodernism to the figure of the psychopath on the novel by Patrick Zuskind «Perfume. The story of a Murderer» (1985). This novel contains such a reinterpretation of genius when it appears in the form of psychopathy. Psychopathic people are becoming increasingly important in today's world. Despite the fact that psychopaths have always existed in culture, it was the writers of postmodernism who actively began to use their images in their works. The focus of P. Zuskind is the figure of genius, the most important for German culture. Romantics laid the tradition of understanding the genius as a mediator, bringing into the world the laws of Nature and directing the development of society. Genius is an important point of connection between anthropological and social planes, genius can be at the same time the embodiment of cultural tradition, and a rebel who destroys it. Using the characteristics of genius that romanticism has developed, Zuskind exaggerates and denies them.  It transformerait positive exalted image of the genius in the figure of the psychopath. Because of its features it is a psychopath becomes a hero, which is a response to the challenges of our time.  The modern world, according to the ideology of postmodernism, is characterized by the subordination of man to the society of consumption, the substitution of reality with a set of simulacra, the desire of society to depersonalize and annihilate man. Moral decentralization of personality and lack of authority makes a person look for support in himself. The protest of the personality against the pressure exerted on it becomes actual, and the psychopath becomes the hero who is capable to challenge the world (writings of J. Fowles, E. Burgess, BI Ellis). The desire of the hero of the novel to build and defend his own individuality comes through cruelty. This is typical for psychopaths who are fanatical devotion to their own interests, success and desire to manipulate others. Thus, using the image of genius as a basis for artistic rethinking, Patrick Zuskind creates a new type of hero with it.