coordinator: Alina Stegrescu CNSS, 2015 CHUCK PALAHNIUK Chuck Palahniuk is an American novelist and freelance journalist, who describes his work as transgressive fiction (a genre of literature that focuses on characters who feel confined by the norms and expectations of society and who break free of those confines in unusual or illicit ways. Because they are rebelling against the basic norms of society, protagonists of transgressive fiction may seem mentally ill, anti-social, or nihilistic. The genre deals ABOUT FIGHT CLUB
The novel attempts to make a
statement on the effects of society norms and the system on an individuals pursuit of happiness through the experiences of an unnamed protagonist struggling with insomnia. It follows a conflict between damnation and redemption, the protagonist considers himself a slave of history and tries to change it by chaos. In 1999, director David Fincher adapted the novel into a film of the PLOT, SETTING, CHARACTERS The narrator- an everyman, white- collared employee, who dedicates himself through consumerism; through the steady acquisition of things, he attempts to cure his anxiety and depression. Tyler Durden- a man of action, free- spirited, impulsive, all-in-all revolutionary Angel Face- A very beautiful man who joins fight club and is loyal to Project Mayhem (based on The Cacophony Society) Robert "Big Bob" Paulson- an acquaintance of the narrator from a support group for testicular cancer, whose death causes the narrator to turn against Tyler because the members of Project Mayhem treat it as a trivial matter instead of a tragedy. Marla Singer- A woman whom the MEDICINE IN FIGHT CLUB(I)
This is a dream. Tyler is a projection. He's a
dissociative personality disorder. A psychogenic fugue state. Tyler Durden is my hallucination.(Chapter 19)
The narrators alter ego, Tyler, represents the
result of the intensity of the psychological damage that is caused by such a materialistic culture. Tyler creates a randomly gathered network of free spirits united in the pursuit of experiences beyond the pale of mainstream society, which is the narrators inward urge to break free from the system put into action. MEDICINE IN FIGHT CLUB(II)
The first time I met Tyler, I was asleep. I was tired
and crazy and rushed, and every time I boarded a plane, I wanted the plane to crash. I envied people dying of cancer*. I hated my life. I was tired and bored with my job and my furniture, and I couldn't see any way to change things. Only end them. I felt trapped. I was too complete. I was too perfect.
A stronger, more confidant personality will
oftentimes take over for the benefit of the individual. Ill bring *-others us through medical referencesthis. As always. are made in Chloes Ill carry case, where you is kicking shown theand screaming suffering and of a cancer in till patient the hisend youll thank reconciliation with death me, Tyler told the narrator. CONCLUSION In Fight club the disease is presented as an attempt of redemption of the characters inner self. Tyler acts as the major catalyst behind the destruction of our vanities, which he claims is the path to finding our inner selves. "I'm breaking my attachment to physical power and possessions," Tyler whispered, "because only through destroying myself can I discover the greater power of my spirit."