Fight Club
Fight Club
By Chuck Palahniuk
In this assignment I will be analyzing some of the most interesting elements in the book “Fight Club” explained with Maffesolis Retraditionalization-theory. I will draw lines to our main topic Consumerism. The book is written by Chuck Palahniuk and was first published in Great Britain in 1997. As the book includes a few different topics, I will be focusing on the development of fight club and project Mayhem.
After the presentation of Anthony Giddens’ thoughts, which was based on the detraditionalization of late modern society, came Michel Maffesoli’s appearance with a new theory that turned the discussion of late modern society’s processions upside down. As the sociologist Anthony Giddens saw tendencies of detraditionalization saw Michel Maffesoli a trend of retraditionalization as a reaction of late modern society. Maffesoli declares the following: “The conformism of youth, the passion for likeness within groups or ‘tribes’, the phenomena of fashion, standardized culture, up to and including unisexualization of appearance, permits us to claim that what we are witnessing is the loss of the idea of the individual in favour of a much less distinct mass.”1 Said with other words, we live in a society where the individualizationprocess has come to an end. Instead individuals seek for answers, stability, meaning and identity through these groups and communities - which Maffesoli also calls neotribes.
In the book Fight Club, it is shown how these individuals are searching for groups to be members of, as they join the fight club without questioning it. They absorb the values and the normality within this group, and create an identity of being a so-called “spacemonkey”. The fight club becomes a brotherhood for these individuals, as they feel that the community has given a new perspective of life and new meaning.
The members of the fight club wear the same black clothes and the same heavy black shoes. This has a strong psychological
By Chuck Palahniuk
In this assignment I will be analyzing some of the most interesting elements in the book “Fight Club” explained with Maffesolis Retraditionalization-theory. I will draw lines to our main topic Consumerism. The book is written by Chuck Palahniuk and was first published in Great Britain in 1997. As the book includes a few different topics, I will be focusing on the development of fight club and project Mayhem.
After the presentation of Anthony Giddens’ thoughts, which was based on the detraditionalization of late modern society, came Michel Maffesoli’s appearance with a new theory that turned the discussion of late modern society’s processions upside down. As the sociologist Anthony Giddens saw tendencies of detraditionalization saw Michel Maffesoli a trend of retraditionalization as a reaction of late modern society. Maffesoli declares the following: “The conformism of youth, the passion for likeness within groups or ‘tribes’, the phenomena of fashion, standardized culture, up to and including unisexualization of appearance, permits us to claim that what we are witnessing is the loss of the idea of the individual in favour of a much less distinct mass.”1 Said with other words, we live in a society where the individualizationprocess has come to an end. Instead individuals seek for answers, stability, meaning and identity through these groups and communities - which Maffesoli also calls neotribes.
In the book Fight Club, it is shown how these individuals are searching for groups to be members of, as they join the fight club without questioning it. They absorb the values and the normality within this group, and create an identity of being a so-called “spacemonkey”. The fight club becomes a brotherhood for these individuals, as they feel that the community has given a new perspective of life and new meaning.
The members of the fight club wear the same black clothes and the same heavy black shoes. This has a strong psychological