Wikipedia talk:Education program archive/Bowling Green State University/After Fight Club: The "Transgressive Fiction" of Chuck Palahniuk, 1999-2012 (Fall 2013)/Course description

American writer Chuck Palahniuk is widely known and lauded for his first published novel, Fight Club (1996); indeed, it is this early work, along with its 1999 big-screen adaptation, that solidified Palahniuk’s reputation as a formidable presence on the contemporary literary scene. Yet Palahniuk has produced a rich and diverse body of work post-Fight Club, one not only equally worthy of the kinds of critical (and cult-like) accolades heaped upon his first novel, but also one that invites serious scholarly investigation and critique. This course will focus on seven of the novels that Palahniuk has written since Fight Club originally was published—from his second novel, Survivor (1999) to his most recent offering, Invisible Monsters Remix (2012). Through our reading and discussion of these works, we will explore not only how Palahniuk charts new ground with his “transgressive fiction” but also how his work builds on and re-works earlier literary traditions (like the epistolary novel, noir, and oral history). We also will locate Palahniuk’s work within the socio-historical landscape of contemporary America, examining the ways in which his work reflects and responds to the concerns and preoccupations of the current age.

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