Erraticism in the Cannibal – A Study of the Work of Thomas Harris

Literature is the key to human life that resurrects and gives space for introspection, retrospection and various remembrances which are hued by overjoy, pain and trauma. Nowadays crime literature became one of the most popular genres in this era which centers mostly on murder and violence. It started from Edgar Allen Poe’s most famous fictional character Auguste Dupin, whose first appearance was on The Murders in the Rue Mogue, considered to be the first crime fiction, followed by Dr. John Watson, Sherlock Holmes and the like. The genre crime fiction has contributed innumerable number of works in both fiction and non-fiction. Thomas Harris’s Hannibal Rising is one such fiction which tells about the life of a serial killer who is a psychiatrist as well as a cannibal. It is a series of novels about the famous character Hannibal Lecter. Cannibalism and Psychiatry are two extremes which rarely meet. This novel is intertwined with a mix of violence, emotions and childhood trauma. Trauma studies nowadays became a key aspect in literature. In this specific work of Thomas Harris, he describes how the centralized character is affected with psychological trauma, in particular, Acute and Separation trauma. Trauma theory became popularized in 1980s and played major role in Atwood’s novels. This study tries to explain how childhood shapes a person and how behaviorism plays a vital element in one’s life and it also tries to analyze the psychological issues, trauma and defense mechanism through the central character of the novel.

Schematic incongruity, conversational power play and criminal mind style in Thomas Harris’ Silence of the Lambs

This article considers the construction of the profilers and criminals in Thomas Harris’ (2013) [1988] novel Silence of the Lambs through the analysis of selected indicative criminal mind-related extracts. The aim is to consider such characters’ construction through analysis of schematic incongruity, conversational power play, language depicting the actual fictional criminal viewpoint and, lastly, psychological profiling language, the style of which has criminal mind style ‘potential’. Schematic incongruity has a role to play in generating impressions of both the normality and abnormality of psychological profilers and the killers they pursue. Serial killers are constructed as not only physically/psychologically ‘abnormal’ but also as ‘abnormals’ amongst other ‘abnormals’ in terms of their conversational patterns, too. Where some criminals’ apparent reluctance, or inability, to accord to conversational norms marks them as uncivilised, killer/profiler Lecter’s mostly conventional conversational politeness marks him out as indirectly mocking the social norms he sometimes chooses to accord to. Where killer Gumb is concerned, profiling language and language depicting his criminal viewpoint draws on metaphors and references to killing being likened to hunting, work and art, suggesting that killing is necessary, commendable and ceremonial, the victims’ mere things to be utilised in a venture that can only be described as worthy. Though Lecter is shown to be ‘born’ into deviant behaviour, and Gumb is suggested to have been ‘made’ into a criminal, the novel undoubtedly suggests connections, similarities even, between both such character types’ extreme criminal behaviour and those wanting to understand ‘criminal minds’ through the profiling practice.

Interpretation of the Silence of the Lambs from the Perspective of Horizon of Expectation

The silence of the lambs is one of the most influential crime novels of its time. The author Thomas Harris vividly depicts the characters and their psychological activities. He created the atmosphere of tension and horror through unique methods, breaking through people’s horizon of expectation, and generating unprecedented experience to readers in the creation process of the novel. At the same time, he created characters that broke people’s prescribed interpretation of the protagonist of crime novels and exceeded readers’ expectations. The aim of this paper is to gain more insight into this great work from the perspective of Horizon of Expectation.

„Człowiek zły i bezwstydny”: Jekyll i Lecter

According to Robert D. Hare “[P]sychopathy is a personality disorder defined by a distinctive cluster of a behaviours and inferred personality traits, most of which society views as pejorative”.57 Although “psychopath” and “psychopathy” are buzzwords nowadays, there is neither a definition clearly defining characteristics of such a person nor a description of what this disorder actually is. In belles-lettres such characters appear for a long time, though no such term was used for them. One of the most interesting cases is Dr. Jekyll from the gothic novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886) by Robert L. Stevenson, where fantastic and criminal threads are combined. The work is an interesting personality study of a man who ignores social norms and satisfies all his whims. He blames his other personality, Mr. Hyde, for his crimes and offenses, himself — Jekyll — perceiving as not only innocent but also a victim. The other example analysed in the article is the character of a psychiatrist, Dr. Hannibal Lecter, one of the characters in the series of four crime novels by Thomas Harris. The picture of a personality that emerges from them is complicated on the one hand, so that it eludes any medical classification, but simple at the same time: a man for whom other people and social norms have no meaning, as if they did not exist at all. Lecter sets his own rules, decides what is good, bad, funny, or boring, whom to kill or keep alive. In the article, I try to show that no one can feel safe in the presence of psychopaths, because their way of perceiving the world and building relationships is completely different from “ordinary” people’s understanding. So, they are a huge threat, the more so because they seem not to stand out from the surroundings. This is one of the issues discussed in the texts I am analysing.

The strange case of Francis Dolarhyde and the Dragon: Alternating narrative points of view and the source of knowledge in Thomas Harris’ 'Red Dragon'

This paper investigates the narrative voice employed by Thomas Harris in Red Dragon as a source of knowledge about the fictional universe, more particularly about the main villain, Francis Dolarhyde. Confronting important epistemological notions (knowledge, justification and their sources) with literary theoretical concepts (narrative voice and points of view), I analyse alternating modes of representation. Harris’ narrator shifts between three modes: the quasi-perceptual one – sense-based, rich in descriptive elements; the quasi-introspective narration carried out from a close subjective angle, using free indirect speech or stream of consciousness; and the testimonial mode – telling (rather than showing) the story through exposition resting on the principle of cause and effect. Employing a vast array of inter-textual pragmatics, the narrative remains ambiguous. In consequence, any proposition about Dolarhyde can be empirically and rationally challenged and all propositional knowledge regarding the character is merely fragmentary.

Perbandingan Monstrositas Kriminal dalam Red Dragon (1981) Karya Thomas Harris dan Hannibal (2015) Serial Televisi NBC

This study aims to reveal how differences in criminal monstrosity are portrayed in Red Dragon novel (1981), with the adaptation of his television series titled Hannibal (2013). The problem discussed is the blurred norms as the form of criminal monstrosity development in Hannibal. The theory used is the criminal monstrosity developed by Alexa Wright (2013). This research uses analytical descriptive method. Data from novels and television series are described and compared to get the grand concept of criminal monstrosity. The results showed that the blurred norms in Hannibal can be seen through normalization of cannibalism by using culinary aesthetic, the role of Will Graham from FBI to Hannibal’s crime partner, and a more intimate relationship between Will and Hannibal. These blurred norms created a new monstrosity narrative: a monstrous criminal nature behind a person who looks normal and able to function properly in society.

Capítulo 7. Los ecos del caníbal: homenajes estilísticos y pilares cinematográficos de Hannibal.

En 2013 Bryan Fuller propuso a la NBC llevar a la pequeña pantalla una nueva adaptación del personaje de Thomas Harris, Hannibal, serie de televisión que recogería un gran éxito de crítica y crearía un fiel fandom. La serie destaca por su composición visual, algo acorde con el interés de Fuller por la estética de la imagen fílmica. En Hannibal se reflejan otras imágenes cinematográficas: el ambiente pesadillesco que habita en el corazón de Hannibal tiene mucho en común con el de la producción de Lynch; el tratamiento del cuerpo está influenciado por la dismorfia corporal característica de David Cronenberg; y la influencia de la plasticidad de los maestros italianos del giallo es algo que el espectador de Hannibal detecta con rapidez. En la serie laten las influencias de todos ellos, así como de Hitchcock, Dario Argento y Kubrick entre otros, tal como se desgranará en este capítulo.Palabras clave: Hannibal, Argento, Cronenberg, Lynch, cine.

Capítulo 3. Relato fílmico frente a relato serial: los casos de Fargo y Hannibal.

Este capítulo analiza las características esenciales del relato televisivo contemporánea para compararlas con las del largometraje cinematográfico tradicional. Explicaremos en primer lugar las diferencias que la ficción televisiva y fílmica tienen en cuanto a unidad narrativa y progresión dramática: la duración textual, el tiempo de consumo y la combinación de la «anthology plot» y la «running plot». En segundo lugar, examinaremos los conceptos de adaptación y remake, en los que tanto la memoria como la originalidad juegan un papel crucial para el éxito de cualquier derivación diegética. Tras aclarar el marco teórico, aplicaremos la teoría al análisis de dos series de televisión recientes basadas en largometrajes de éxito: la primera temporada de Fargo (FX, 2014-), una suerte de remake-secuela de la película de los hermanos Coen; y las tres de Hannibal (NBC, 2013-15), un reboot de la franquicia de El silencio de los corderos (The Silence of the Lambs, Demme, 1991) que intenta llenar los huecos previos al nacimiento del personaje en la novela El dragón rojo, de Thomas Harris. Palabras clave: Fargo, Hannibal, Remake, Relato televisivo, Relato fílmico, Intertextualidad.

Thomas 'Jupiter' Harris

This is the first biography of Thomas Harris (1738-1820). Until now, little has been known about his life. He was most visible as the man who controlled Covent Garden theatre for nearly five decades, one of only two venues in London allowed by law to perform spoken drama. Harris presided over one of the most eventful periods in the history of the English stage; uncovering his involvement provides new perspectives upon landmark events in London’s history. But this career was only one of many: he became the confidant of George III, a philanthropist, sexual suspect, and a brothel owner in the underworld of Covent Garden. While deeply involved in Pitt the younger’s government, Harris worked as a ‘spin doctor’ to control the release of government news. Only through understanding his career is it possible to appreciate fully the suppression of radicalism in the period. As novelists created elaborate storylines with fictional intriguers lurking in the shadows, Harris was the real thing. Harris’s career intersects many of the hidden worlds of the eighteenth century including the art of theatre and theatre management, the activities of the Secret Service, radical protest, and sexual indulgence. This narrative of detection brings together a hoard of newly discovered manuscripts to construct his numerous lives.