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Aligning with Sociopaths: Character Engagement Strategies in Highsmith’s and Minghella’s Talented Mr. Ripleys

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Zdunkiewicz L.

Text Matters: A Journal of Literature, Theory and Culture

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2021

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issue 11

119-136

EN

Patricia Highsmith’s stated reason for writing The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955) was to see if she could elicit empathetic engagement for her immoral protagonist Tom Ripley. Amongst other factors, she achieves her goal by allowing readers to align affectively with the protagonist’s road to self-discovery. Her experiment culminates with Tom’s fruition into an aggressive consumer, thus resolving his and the readers’ apprehensions. On the other hand, Anthony Minghella’s Ripley leaves more room for interpretation. In his interviews, the filmmaker states that he does not aim for his protagonist to remain the sociopath from Highsmith’s novel. Instead, his story explores the absence of a father figure and how it affects his main characters. Consequently, he frames Tom as an underprivileged youth whose emotional instability brings about his demise. To this end, he employs victimization scenes, as well as moral disengagement cues. I argue that, amongst other factors, such an application of an industry-tested design of emphatic concern elicitation obscures the filmmaker’s initial intent. As a result, Minghella’s Tom can be seen as a manipulative sociopath, as well as a victimized tragic hero.

2

Three Layers of Metaphors in Ross Macdonald’s Black Money

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Zdunkiewicz L.

Text Matters: A Journal of Literature, Theory and Culture

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2019

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issue 9

259-270

EN

In his early career, Kenneth Millar, better known as Ross Macdonald, emulated the style of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. By the 1960s he had established himself as a distinct voice in the hardboiled genre. In his Lew Archer series, he conveys the complexity of his characters and settings primarily by the use of metaphors. In his 1966 novel Black Money the device performs three functions. In the case of minor characters, the author uses metaphors to comment on Californian society. Concurrently, metaphors describing major characters allow him to develop their dramatic arcs, whereas the recurring elements of the leitmotif serve to demonstrate the narrating detective’s growing concerns with the ongoing investigation. Arguably, it was Macdonald’s use of metaphors that helped define his unique voice.

3

Sociopaths as Antiheroes of Streaming Media

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Zdunkiewicz L.

Anglica Wratislaviensia

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2019

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issue 57

89-101

EN

Unlike their traditional counterparts, contemporary TV antiheroes are becoming increasingly non-empathetic. Despite their dislikable qualities, they succeed in attracting audiences. I consider two factors that may be influencing their popularity. The first involves viewers’ increasing familiarity with storytelling techniques and their resulting gravitation towards narratives capable of challenging their story schemas. The second aspect concerns the entertainment industry’s transformations. Aware of their well-watched audiences’ expectations, studios are turning to novelists to pursue more defamiliarizing forms. I discuss The Assassination of Gianni Versace (2018) as an example of a series that experiments with viewers’ affective responses towards its sociopathic protagonist. I argue that the writer’s choices extricate Versace from the formulaic justice-is-served narrative, thus appealing to those consumers additionally motivated by, what researchers call, eudaemonic concerns.

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2 Text Matters: A Journal of Literature, Theory and Culture

1 Anglica Wratislaviensia

3 Zdunkiewicz L.

1 2021

2 2019

Aligning with Sociopaths: Character Engagement Strategies in Highsmith’s and Minghella’s Talented Mr. Ripleys

Three Layers of Metaphors in Ross Macdonald’s Black Money

Sociopaths as Antiheroes of Streaming Media