The Legacy of Invisible Man: Ralph Ellison's Influence on Fight Club.

• Název práce v češtině: Odkaz Neviditelného: vliv Ralpha Ellisona na Klub rváčů.
• Název v anglickém jazyce: The Legacy of Invisible Man: Ralph Ellison's Influence on Fight Club.
• Klíčová slova: Ralph Ellison|Neviditelný|Chuck Palahniuk|Klub rváčů|vyvlastnění|vlastnictví|identita|manipulace|společenská neviditelnost|společnost|svoboda|everyman|kdokolivěk|kdožkolivěk|americký sen
• Klíčová slova anglicky: Ralph Ellison|Invisible Man|Chuck Palahniuk|Fight Club|dispossession|possession|identity|manipulation|social invisibility|society|freedom|everyman|American dream
• Akademický rok vypsání: 2019/2020
• Typ práce: bakalářská práce
• Jazyk práce: angličtina
• Ústav: Ústav anglofonních literatur a kultur (21-UALK)
• Vedoucí / školitel: David Lee Robbins, Ph.D.
• Řešitel: skrytý - zadáno a potvrzeno stud. odd.
• Datum přihlášení: 02.03.2020
• Datum zadání: 02.03.2020
• Schválení administrátorem: zatím neschvalováno
• Datum potvrzení stud. oddělením: 04.03.2020
• Datum a čas obhajoby: 08.09.2021 11:00
• Datum odevzdání elektronické podoby: 12.08.2021
• Datum proběhlé obhajoby: 08.09.2021
• Odevzdaná/finalizovaná: odevzdaná studentem a finalizovaná
• Oponenti: doc. Erik Sherman Roraback, D.Phil.

Zásady pro vypracování

The Legacy of Invisible Man: Ralph Ellison’s Influence on Fight Club
Ralph Ellison’s novel Invisible Man has many themes that are still present in the current discourse and, therefore, may be spotted in contemporary novels. This BA thesis will focus on the protagonists of Ellison’s Invisible Man and Chuck Palahniuk’s novel Fight Club. The protagonists are the narrators of the stories who lead a similar life and are deeply influenced by the society they live in where they are stained by their inability to push through their own ideas and decisions. They are both part of organizations they partly, though only seemingly, lead. Although they have a free hand in those organizations, they are limited by their rules. There are people living in their shadows from where they exploit their intentions for their own personal benefits.
The decision to write the thesis on this topic comes from the lack of research in the contemporary literary criticism that would examine the novel Fight Club in comparison to any major American work. Most of them pursue more popular themes such as anarchy, personality disorder, or the comparison to the movie adaption. But in the novel, there are also detailed representations and ideas of the contemporary American mindset which is not discussed as often – Invisible Man’s version of dispossession, living on the edge of society, inability to change anything without a brute force, and a complete change of the protagonist’s personality. During my research, it is possible that I may stumble over some discrepancies between both protagonists as they have different backgrounds: race, status, lived in different eras. Another problem may be the number of sources on Fight Club as it still is, in the terms of literary criticism, a new subject of research, though there are plenty of essays on the movie adaptation which may prove to be useful as it managed to capture most of the novel’s themes quite well.
Because I have found only one shorter article on the topic of this thesis, it will draw from essays and works that regard each narrator separately and, then, juxtapose their approach on a given subject. Therefore, my main research technique will be juxtaposition where concords or discrepancies between both protagonists’ personalities and thoughts will emerge.

Seznam odborné literatury

Primary sources:
Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. New York: Vintage Books Edition, 1989.
Palahniuk, Chuck. Fight Club. London: Vintage, 2010.
Secondary sources:
Baker, Houston A. Blues, Ideology, and Afro-American Literature: A Vernacular Theory. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1987.
Kovařík, Tomáš. Triangulating Agency: Identity, Society and Politics in Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man. Prague: Faculty of Art, Charles University, 2019.
Mason, Michael. “Father of Fight Club”. This Land Press. This Land Press, 4 July 2014. , 19 January 2020.
Palahniuk, Chuck. Stranger Than Fiction: True Stories. New York: Anchor Books, 2004.
Schuchardt, Read Mercer. You do not talk about Fight Club: I am Jack’s completely unauthorised essay collection. Dallas, TX: Babella Books, Inc., 2008.