Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Anthony Shaffer’s mystery thriller, Sleuth, and subsequent film version, provide a blueprint for the crushing influence of imitation and monstrous doubling as outlined by French-American anthropologist, René Girard. The relationship between crime writer Andrew Wyke and his wife’s lover reveals itself to be one of negative reciprocity built upon envy, leading to a lethal dénouement. Yet Milo’s final renunciation of mediated desire and further games-playing breaks the cycle of symmetry. Throughout both the script and screenplay, Shaffer offers an acute social commentary on the concepts of difference and non-belonging, while also addressing the drive towards assimilation which risks fomenting resentment among in-groups and out-groups.
Source: Studia Filmoznawcze
Author: Andrzej Fretschel-Hojarski
Institution: Jagiellonian University
Language: English
Subfield: Literature and Literary Theory
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4409905057