“To Buy or Not to Be” The Rejection of a Postmodern World in Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club (1996)
| dc.contributor.author | Khaoula BENDIB | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2021-09-14T08:32:29Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2021-09-14T08:32:29Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2021-06 | |
| dc.description.abstract | The present study aims to highlight and explore the impact of the consumerism on white men in the American society, as well as the use of violence as a rejection towards a commodified masculinity in Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club (1996). Besides, it sheds light on the identity issue experienced by American white men, which is a direct result to the consumerist culture imposed in the American society. This research examines how this novel depicts a consumerist nation, that is meaningless at core, and its psychological impact on white men and their role in such societies. Moreover, it discusses how Palahniuk represents both, redemption and terrorism through violence that is committed by these men. This endeavor, thus, investigates how influencing is consumerism on the psychological level of the individuals, and especially white men as they seek their own salvation through violence. It also draws attention towards the interpretation of this violence as a rejection since it is uncommon for individuals to use for a cause. To this end, this dissertation is divided into two chapters; the first one provides a socio-historical context and theoretical background about consumerism in America during the twenty first century. Also, it sheds light on the psychoanalytical approach and its main theories, which are used in the present study. Furthermore, it provides a theoretical background on satire in the American writings. This offers a better understanding of the issues tackled in the second chapter. This latter, in its turn, analyses the impact of consumerism on the American white man in Palahniuk’s Fight Club, and how masculinity is ‘commodified’, which results in an identity crisis. In addition, it focuses on violence and how it is portrayed in the novel. We conclude that in a consumerist society, identity represents what is owned; which affects, not only the economic field, but the psychology of its population. For this latter is being ‘commodified’ at heart, which results in the male manifestation against consumerism. Furthermore, Fight Club is about embracing passion and nothingness, for all the members are people who run from their anxiety of their life, which is imposed by society. Thus, the Fight Club is considered as a therapeutic club since it represents a space that allows the expression of repressed anger and a way to deal with fear, where members seize chances and risk their lives in embracing to be passionate within the club, which they cannot make in real life. | en_US |
| dc.identifier.issn | AN118-2021 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://dspace.univ-msila.dz:8080//xmlui/handle/123456789/25908 | |
| dc.subject | Key words: Masculinity, commodification, identity, violence, self-recognition | en_US |
| dc.title | “To Buy or Not to Be” The Rejection of a Postmodern World in Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club (1996) | en_US |
| dc.type | Thesis | en_US |