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Investigating English Language: An examination of applied irony in
Chuck Palahniuks Fight Club.


1.0 Introduction

As a writer who grounded many of his works in the genre of transgressive fiction, Chuck
Palahniuk wrote to transcend the typical boundaries of novels stories. In doing so, Palahniuk
developed characters confined by the conventions and expectations of their surrounding
society that sought to escape their confines through anti-heroic and rebellious methods
entailing a number of social taboos. Fight Club parallels this direction of content in its
literary linguistic makeup, using multiple strains of the concept of irony as rhetorical devices
to complement Palahniuks transgressive work. Irony offers an alternative concealed
method of conveying information that does not render the reader submissive to direct
expression in a fashion that discourages the reading audience from formulating their own
assertions. Analysing the presence of irony in Fight Club, which manifests in a multitude of
capacities including Romantic, dramatic, situational, verbal and Socratic irony, this essay
will formulate its examination of these qualities using the following thesis: Chuck
Palahniuks application of irony in Fight Club conveys information through a concealed
means of encoding language that is integral to establishing a transgressive opposition to
social norms and expectations endorsed by the narrating protagonist.

2.0 Romantic Irony

Chuck Palahniuks incorporation of a main character who frequently transitions between
the roles of protagonist and narrator provides a delivery that includes elements of
metafiction akin to Romantic irony. Romantic irony is achieved in Fight Club through the
employment of second person narrative during period when the unnamed main character
serves as a narrator:

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the first step to eternal life is you have to die To make a silencer, you just drill
holes in the barrel of the gun, a lot of holes. This lets the gas escape and slows the bullet to
below the speed of sound. You drill the holes wrong and the gun will blow off your hand
You take a 98-percent concentration of fuming nitric acid and add the acid to three times
that amount of sulfuric acid. Do this in an ice bath. Then add glycerin drop-by-drop with an
eye dropper. You have nitroglycerin. (Palahniuk (2006: 11-12))

A second person narrative mode, through the narrator acknowledges the reader,
creates an element of interactivity with Palahniuks audience that is more often present
amongst works of non-fiction. This notion is aided by the second person narratives coupling
with other linguistic devices conventionally associated with non-fiction, instructional works.
These include short sentences introduced by and including adverbs and transitive verbs that
create a chronological sequence of imperatives; as if components of a self-help guide: Do
this in an ice bath. Then add glycerin drop-by-drop with an eye dropper. (Palahniuk (2006:
12))

In the process, this voice rejects the novel genres conventional efforts to immerse
readers in an alternative reality that suspends their self-awareness (Ryan (1999)). Instead,
the likes of second person pronouns transcend the narrative boundary and subsequently
draw attention to its existence as a work of fiction. This exposes the novels illusory world;
encouraging readers to critically reflect on their own existence in a manner reminiscent of
epic dramas Marxist approach to visual performance (Counsell (1986: 106-107)). The
effects of this ironic distance between the novels content and the audience exposed to its
fictional status by the narrators use of a second person narrative voice are addressed by
Colebrook (2004: 3) who cites ironys distancing function as a method of determining the
meaning behind an utterance without directly disclosing the necessary context. In doing so,
elements of sincere immediacy are avoided, allowing readers to extract hidden meaning
from text.

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Colebrooks citing of Romantic irony being separated from any sincere commitment to
the text closely relates to the novels transgressive genre storyline; a documentation of
similar efforts to displace loyalty to pre-existing conventions through their destruction. As
part of this process, the incorporation of second person pronouns emulates the imperative
addressing of potential consumers applied by advertisers of material goods that encapsulate
traits of capitalism the unnamed narrating protagonist attempts to erase with his anarchistic
scheme to bring about the downfall of Americas debt system. Imperative addressing
communicates a sense of authority over the reader that recreates the suppressive nature of
a consumer society. This association between Chuck Palahniuks transgressive ideological
content and the implementation of a second person narrative as a method of Romantic irony
that dispels the illusion of fiction is sustained by similar connections in two of Palahniuks
other works, the novel Diary and the Foot Work short story of his Haunted collection. With
similar sentiments between literary presence and linguistic implementation, the notion of
rebellious dislocation from the norm is conveyed both superficially and ironically; appealing
to the popular and intellectually elite readers of Fight Club.

2.1 Situational Irony

Fight Clubs narrative development concludes with the manifestation of situational irony
arising out of Palahniuks non-chronological sequencing of pivotal scenarios in the novel.
This most aptly exhibits itself regarding the revelation pertaining to the relationship
between the unnamed narrating protagonist and the character Tyler Durden, which is only
revealed following extensive interaction between the two as opposed to prior to any
interfacing. This variation conveys the significance of context in fully understanding
linguistic utterances. Palahniuk commences the novel incorporating the use of the first
person plural pronouns we and us as the narrator transitions into his role as a character:

We both stood there, Tyler rubbing the side of his neck and me holding a hand on my
chest, both of us knowing we'd gotten somewhere we'd never been and like the cat and
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mouse in cartoons, we were still alive and wanted to see how far we could take this thing
and still be alive. (Palahniuk (2006: 53))

Out of the unnamed narrating protagonists use of plural pronouns, situational irony
arises as it communicates a meaning that transcends its literal interpretation. The author
exploits the lack of context surrounding the protagonists use of we, alongside the
incorporation of Tyler Durden as a speaking personality within the opening chapter to force
the reader to solely rely on their conventional assumption of the word we as addressing
multiple individuals. This in turn heightens the dramatic climax of the novels revelation that
the protagonist, as one person, transitions between two forms of consciousness that have
each developed personalities. Inverting the circumstances under which the plural pronoun
we is conventionally applied, the process is evidence of the significance of contextual
information. According to the theory of relevance, context is integral to deciphering the
presence of irony and accurately understanding the intended implicatures behind ones
utterances, motivating Palahniuks audience to continue reading in the process. Sperber and
Wilson (1986: 15-16, 176) assert the importance of context in the interpretation process of
decoding hidden communication that is essential to the comprehension of irony, citing
contexts psychological construct as superior to realitys actual state in affecting the
interpretation of an utterance. Subsequently, coded communications subservience to the
autonomous inferential process is a predominant power hierarchy in the interpretation of
irony. This relationship parallels the one shared by Chuck Palahniuk and Fight Clubs reading
audience.

When applied to the transgressive ideologies behind Chuck Palahniuks Fight Club, the
deliberate withholding of context related to the dual-personality of the narrating protagonist
exposes the weaknesses of social constructs and the assumptions readers draw from them
within the popular understanding of fiction. The revelation that Palahniuks use of we does
not relate to multiple people as conventions would have one believe forces the reader to
acknowledge and reflect on the uninformed position they have assumed throughout the
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novel until the climactic scene. Also, incorporating a protagonist who shares the same level
of understanding as the reader, learning of his condition as Palahniuks audience does,
allows them to relate to the unnamed narrating protagonist instead of interpreting the
withholding of information as a belittling of their susceptible position to the decisions of the
author. Through its application, this example of situational irony relates to the revolutionary
anarchistic elements of the novels content and Palahniuks association with transgressive
fiction. This serves the practical purpose of creating a plot development that attempts to
inspire his audience to finish reading the novel.

2.2 Dramatic Irony

In contrast to situational ironys rendering of the reader subjective to the prolonged
delivery of contextual information pertaining to the narrative Chuck Palahniuk offers in Fight
Club, dramatic irony also manifests in the novel. This plot device is notably achieved
through passages that incorporate the frequent repetition of Tyler Durdens name as a
means of topic shift. Its excessive use within a limited space and lack of relation to
preceding content flouts the maxim of relevance in a manner that impairs the fluidity of the
narrative. This creates an anomaly that sustains the audiences acknowledgement of Tyler
Durden in scenes where he is neither present nor relevant. The anomaly encourages
Palahniuks readers to challenge the narrators connections with Durden until they can
conclude that this fascination stems from them sharing the same consciousness, a
revelation significant to the narratives story that readers who are capable of
comprehending dramatic irony should recognise before it is disclosed to the unnamed
narrating protagonist.

Marla and I walk on raked gravel paths through the kaleidoscope green patterns of the
garden, drinking and smoking. We talk about her breasts. We talk about everything except
Tyler DurdenEvery night, Marla and I walk in the garden until I'm sure that Tyler's not
coming home that nightSo many people are moving inside, the house movessomeone
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was drilling bank machines and pay telephones and then screwing lube fittings into the
drilled holes and using a grease gun to pump the bank machines and pay telephones full of
axle grease or vanilla pudding. And Tyler was never at home (Palahniuk (2006: 132-
133))

Dramatic ironys establishing of a distinction between the utterance of the unnamed
narrating protagonist and how it is interpreted by the novels reading audience inverts the
readers position from one of reliance on the authors greater understanding of the
narrative, to one where he or she accurately comprehends a scenario through interpreting
the thought processes dictated by the protagonist, who is unable to adopt this same
interpretation of his situation. The audiences superior perception from beyond the narrative
enables dramatic irony as defined by Peter Goldie (2007: 72). Goldies comprehension of
dramatic irony bases itself on the reading audiences empowering ability to independently
distinguish between the differing circumstance of actual reality and the alternative one that
the uninformed narrating protagonist interprets. This notion adheres to Palahniuks efforts
to prevent his audience from suspending their awareness of reality, whilst complementing
the novels transgressive rejection of social suppression.

Through Palahniuks inclusion of dramatic irony, he is able to counter the suppressive
effects of situational ironys withholding of contextual information from the reading audience
that is contrary to this essays interpretation of the transgressive fiction as an effort to
encourage self-reflection and activism on the part of the audience through its focus on
revolutionary activity and critique of corporate America. This ensures that Palahniuk can
exploit situational ironys contribution to establishing a surprising outcome without
hypocritically discrediting its own intent. With this potential dilemma neutralised, dramatic
irony encourages the reading audience to develop their own conclusions through the
cognitive process of formulating a hypothesis drawing from the narratives context and the
unnamed narrating protagonists utterances. This process surpasses most novels efforts to
immerse their audience in a fiction where connections with reality can be suspended in a
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manner that parallels Fight Clubs transgressive association with the notion of escaping from
a life of exploitation and manipulation by higher powers. This method ensures that the
communication of self-awareness and encouraged activism is not applied through a direct
written representation of the ideology that would contradict itself by keeping the audience
subjective to the narrative (Lukcs (1974: 70-84)).

In conjunction with Fight Clubs emphasis on realism, which is conveyed through a
combination of subdued modes of speaking characterised by short, unimpressive sentences
and content relating to the mediocrity of most peoples everyday lives, communication of
the truth through the medium of irony transmits a dissatisfaction with the social impulses of
popular convention that is represented by a more direct alternative of sharing information.
This disillusionment parallels the protagonists frustration with Western societys decent into
subjectivity to the forces of consumerism (Hirschkop and Shepard (1989: 33)).

2.3 Verbal Irony

Verbal irony within Fight Club offers the best representation of dramatic ironys
rhetorical qualities through its establishing of inconsistencies between utterances and their
intended meanings related to context. (Bennett and Royle (2009: 323)) Its deception
supports the notion that verbal irony is an elitist concept that requires consideration of
relevant context for an utterances concealed implicatures to be accurately comprehended.
Within the novel, Palahniuk employs unique examples of verbal irony as opposed to
incorporating conventional figures of speech familiar among to his reading audience. Their
application complements this transgressive fictions efforts to document the rejection of
social norms in a manner that does not require Palahniuk to acknowledge these customs in
order to convey his message. This process is acknowledged by Colebrook (2004: 47), who
recognises the dilemma of challenging reason without relying on the methods ones stance
set out to delimit. This predicament is resolved by ironys claim to be heard whilst gesturing
to its own limits. Subsequently, a concept can be cited and discredited in a single utterance;
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an accessible means of conveying implicature that Palahniuk exploits to enforce the novels
transgressive message.

Instances of verbal irony pertaining to this outlook established in Fight Club notably
revolve around the socially taboo concepts of destruction and death. One example is the
unnamed narrating protagonists utterance, Oh all those crazy car bombs. The quote
possesses underlying ironic connotations related to the contextual popular association of
explosives with anarchy and the transgressive, illicit nature of the novel in general.
Conventionally, it is not the explosive that is crazy but the chaotic reaction that ensues; a
notion pertinent to the content of this novel, which follows a radical outfits attempts to
create disorder through the medium of detonating explosives. In addition, the colloquial
term crazy is more commonly associated with the mental condition of an individual and
their personality as opposed to an object. Consequently, irony arises out of Palahniuks use
of this term through the vessel of the mentally unstable unnamed narrating protagonist.
Because the novels protagonist and its status as a transgressive fiction are entities
associated with the anti-social ideology Fight Club details, their attempts to impose anti-
consumerist destruction on a western society that they consider too submissive to the
influence of corporate America is in itself a process that one could interpret as crazy
because of its contrariness to the majority social norm. The casually informal nature of the
utterance Oh all those crazy car bombs is indicative of an outlook so opposed to the
common attitude of fear towards terrorism that it encapsulates the intentionally
confrontational characteristic of an ironic utterance. Wayne Booth (1974) supports this
claim, citing the evidently false nature of an utterance as being integral to a readers
recognition that there are other underlying implicatures to be identified.

Palahniuks making of this ironic utterance accessible through its distinctively relaxed
delivery of a socially unconventional notion encourages further examination into the
unnamed narrating protagonists mental stability. Furthermore, utterances including the
extract listed above serve as a subtle form of prolepsis alongside other examples including
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From upstairs, Tyler watches me (Palahniuk (2006: 129)) that foreshadow the climactic
revelation of the protagonists damaged psychology dividing his consciousness into two
separate entities. This empowers the concept of verbal irony as both a linguistic and a
literary feature in Fight Club that highlights the significance of irony in this novel.

2.4 Socratic Irony

The application of irony in Fight Club also extends to the manipulation and disregard of
conventional power hierarchies within discussion. Simulating a lack of knowledge, which
would conventionally imply a dependence on other parties and undermine ones own
authority, the unnamed narrating protagonist feigns ignorance. This notably arises in the
protagonists allusion to Jesus and the gospels that the protagonist compares to his anti-
social endeavour to erase social conventions through the destruction of corporate America:

Maybe we would become a legend, maybe not. No, I say, but wait.
Where would Jesus be if no one had written the gospels? (Palahniuk (2006: 15))

Socratic irony is another means of directing the reading audiences attention towards a
concept without directly addressing it within the body of the text. It is a particularly
effective device in the transgressive fictional novel Fight Club through its provocative
eliciting of irony, which complements the authors aggressive condemnation of multiple
facets of society. Portraying a lack of knowledge using an open-ended question with no
specified recipient, the reading audience have the opportunity to interpret the query as a
challenge directed towards themselves. The combination of the question and this response
transcend the narrative boundary between fiction and reality in a manner similar to
Romantic irony.

The extract seeks to promote an interpretation that is not related to the direct
answering of this rhetorical question. Using Jesus as an iconic figure that is familiar within
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western society, Palahniuk, through the unnamed narrating protagonist, conveys the notion
that it is not an impressive feat that establishes its own legacy, but a recounting of it that
allows the deed to grow in prominence. In line with Fight Clubs narrative, this example of
Socratic irony, as well as metafiction if Palahniuks transgressive work stems from a
personal rejection of social convention, justifies the counter-productive nature of Project
Mayhem as an endeavour that will be appreciated and established a legacy with as the story
of Jesus existence has become.

This notions lack of direct correlation with the ambiguous quote listed above
demonstrates an element of encoded implicature within the unnamed narrating
protagonists utterance that requires contextual understanding to successfully decipher.
Identifying the utterances implicatures sustains the maxim of relevance essential to
establishing relevance theory, through which irony can be successfully interpreted. Socratic
irony creates the benefit of encouraging the audience to reflect on their own reality without
compromising the narratives fluidity by directly addressing the issue of how a legacy is
established through a rhetorical question. The encouragement of the reading audience to
reflect on their own opinion and understandings of this ambiguous utterance prevents them
from freezing their own interpretations of reality as they read Fight Club, which correlates
with Palahniuks efforts to establish a transgressive story of individuals empowering
themselves in opposition to the direction of social functions. This further solidifies
Palahniuks implementation of irony as a linguistic construction and a literary device related
to the novels content.

3.0 Conclusion

The literary technique of irony has been examined in Fight Club because of the books
prominent transcending of superficial narrative through the encoding of information. This
correlates with the transgressive content of Fight Club while encouraging the broadening of
the readers perception to accommodate concealed meaning in the novels story. This
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encoding of contradictory meaning in thought processes, utterances and narrative
sequencing is the nucleus of irony in politically motivated texts such as Fight Club; that
which makes its nature rhetorical. Identification of five variant strains of irony discloses the
extent to which Palahniuks incorporates irony in his text. This analysis of irony through the
observation of both linguistic structure and experimental content offers a means of
evaluation that accounts for both the individuals reading of Fight Club and a communal
understanding of the novel that recognises and exploits social conventions.

4.0 References

Bennett, A. and Royle, N. (2002) An Introduction to Literature, Criticism and
Theory. 4
th
ed. Harlow: Longman Publishing.

Booth, W. (1974) A Rhetoric of Irony. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Colebrook, C. (2004) Irony: The New Critical Idiom. New York: Routledge Publishing
Company.

Counsell, C. (1986) Signs of Performance. London: Routledge Publishing Company.

Goldie, P. (2007) Dramatic Irony, Narrative, and the External Perspective. In: Hutto, D.
(Ed.) Narrative and Understanding Persons. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Glazener, N. (1989) Dialogic subversion: Bakhtin, the novel and Gertrude Stein. In:
Hirschkop, K. and Shepard D. (Ed.) Bakhtin and cultural theory. Manchester: Manchester
University Press

Hirschkop, K. (1989) Introduction: Bakhtin and cultural theory. In: Hirschkop, K. and
Shepard D. (Ed.) Bakhtin and cultural theory. Manchester: Manchester University Press
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Lukcs, G. (1974) Theory of the Novel. Trans. by Anna Bostock. Cambridge: MIT
Press.

Palahniuk, C. (2006) Fight Club. London: Vintage Publishing.

Ryan, M. (1999) Immersion vs. Interactivity: Virtual Reality and Literary Theory.
SubStance 28(2): pp.110-137.

Sperber, D. and Wilson, D. (1986) Relevance: Communication and Cognition.
Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.

Tendahl, M. (2009) A Hybrid Theory of Metaphor: Relevance Theory and
Cognitive Linguistics. Dortmund: University of Dortmund.

Vlastos, G. Socratic Irony. The Classical Quarterly (New Series) 42(1): pp.79-96