Dr. Lecter and Mr. Dexter Morgan: mutations of the postclassic hero in television fiction

Abstract

This paper studies the contemporary hero and their transformations in the television serial fiction, led in recent times to the serial killer protagonist figure in the already completed Dexter (Showtime, 2006-2013) and Hannibal (NBC, from 2013). Both fictions are two highly relevant examples for the reprocessing of the hero, in the light of the archetypal story that lies at the core of both: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson and its main concept of “doppelganger". From a qualitative methodology, this study first address some preliminary questions about the transformation of the classical hero in contemporary seriality, in its passage from classical to post-classical hero to move to focus on the figure of Stevenson twice already addressed in his work, and so proceed to analyze from this point of view the NBC and Showtime series about heroic archetype mutation in its contemporary figure.