Expressions of a Self Without a Self in Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay

• Autor(a) principal: Lima, Maria Antónia
• Data de Publicação: 2015
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10174/16630
• topic: Dexter; Jeff Lindsay; self; monster; double; American gothic.

In a world in which mothers kill their children, husbands kill their wives, sons kill their parents, and people kill themselves to kill other people, it seems that many of us have long lost the true sense of ourselves and our humanity. To remind us of that old and precious meaning, Jeff Lindsay felt the urge to create a brilliant psychotic serial killer, who wrestles with moral dilemmas and the nature of good and evil. The originality of his concept comes from the invention of an artful psycho with a heart, a man without a very well balanced self, but someone who is able to expose and question the level of authenticity we have in different parts of our lives. A smart, self-aware homicidal maniac in the tradition of Richard III and Hannibal Lecter, Dexter is a very original kind of gothic villain, possessing all the duplicities, ambivalences and paradoxes of a self defined by being a “neat monster”. A forensic blood-spatter special- ist for the Miami Police Department by day, and avenging serial murderer by night, Dexter kills only people who deserve to die, which despite his violent actions defies the moral boundaries of the human condition. Surpassing the clichés of eroticized vio- lence and the too serious scientific special effects of CSI series, Dexter’s narrative uses an intelligent dark humour to subvert the rational power of forensic experts, showing that an efficient professional can be as perverted by irrational impulses as the criminals themselves, and what really obsesses a serial killer may turn to be the most normal obsession for a common man: to keep up appearances. Concerned about passing as a fully emotional member of the human race, Lindsay’s character deals with violence as something intoxicating and thrilling, horrifying and beautiful. Whenever Dexter acts inside the blackest cave of morality, his very expressive bloody patterns show he is the murderous equivalent of Jackson Pollock.