Chuck Palahniuk: Fight Club and Beyond

full name / name of organization: 
Dr. Billy J. Stratton, Bowling Green State University
contact email: 

Call For Papers—Chuck Palahniuk: Fight Club and Beyond
October 14-16, 2010
Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association Annual Convention, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Following the popular success of the 1999 cinematic adaption of his novel Fight Club (1996), Chuck Palahniuk emerged as a major figure in the American literary scene. Despite his popular success, Palahniuk's work eschews easy categorization, and pushes the boundaries of liminal experience. In a series of novels including Lullaby (2002), Diary (2003), and Haunted (2005), for instance, Palahniuk extends the boundaries of transgressive discourse and problematizes notions of narration, genre, and form. In other works such as Survivor (1999), Invisible Monsters (1999), Choke (2001), Snuff (2008), and Pygmy (2009), he seems to amplify the critique of contemporary American consumer and political culture initiated with Fight Club. While embracing the popularity and literary significance of Fight Club, this panel is interested in proposals on any of Palahniuk's subsequent works. Proposals that approach Palahniuk's novels and cinematic adaptations in relation to the following topics are particularly welcome:

Discourses on the Body and Psychic Trauma
Inscription and Textuality
Nomadology and Indigenous Culture
Ecocriticism and Radical Environmentalism
Dystopia, Apocalypse, and Millennial Movements
Anarchism and Revolution
Colonialism and Globalization
Disability Studies
Cinematic Adaptations and Popular Culture
Economies of Desire and Fetishism
Beauty and Aesthetics
Manifestations of Postmodernism/Posthumanism

This list is certainly not intended to be comprehensive and I encourage proposals that address Palahniuk's work in innovative and insightful ways. Send abstracts of 250 words by March 1, along with your name, educational affiliation, address, and email to:
Dr. Billy J. Stratton, Bowling Green State University, strattb@bgsu.edu