Desiring Machines/Bodies without Organs: The Concept of Body in Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club, Invisible Monsters and Choke

Abstract

This thesis analyzes the concept of body and its relation to "desire" in Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club (1996), Invisible Monsters (1999) and Choke (2001). The three characters, the Narrator, Shannon and Victor respectively display the characteristics of schizos defined by Deleuze and Guattari in their collaborative works, Capitalism and Schizophrenia and A Thousand Plateaus. Deleuze and Guattari, who place schizoanalysis against psychoanalysis, define the schizo as someone who aims to direct his her own desire and resist being under control. To violate the codes implemented by the society, these characters seek "lines of flight," ways of escape from the social orders and choose violence as the best practice to break the chains. The schizos deterritorialize from their known territories to wander in unfamiliar ones aiming to attain the body without organs which is defined a non-restrictive place without hierarchy and organization. This thesis aims to prove that the three characters of P