Psychos’ Haunting Memories: a(n) (un)common literary heritage

Abstract

Psychos’ Haunting Memories: A(n) (Un)common Literary Heritage

Maria Antónia Lima

Abstract: In our times, one of the most prevailing forms of terror is certainly the psychological terror. In the history of literature and cinema, it’s impossible to forget some very widely known characters called psychos, especially those created by Edgar Allan Poe, Robert Bloch, Stephen King, Bret Easton Ellis, Sarah Kane and Patrick McGrath. Usually, they are haunted not only by their own private memories, but also by a literary memory that associates them to a common heritage, as if each psychotic character belonged to a very old gothic family, in which every member had been cursed to inherit the disease of his ancestors or the sins of his fathers. Haunted by images of their past, that recurrently return to the present, these psychos defy the barriers of time and all the traditional distinctions between reality and imagination, because one can never be sure if the stories are really about murders or about victims of their very diseased minds. Uncertainties and doubts disturb the reader as they also disturb the main character in search of a lost identity.

Keywords: Psychos, Terror, Haunting Memories, Literary Heritage, Poe.