The Final Transgression (paper guidelines)

• Like the midterm paper, it should be driven by a question
• These are the main differences:
• style can be informal and even creative
• alongside transgressive fiction you can discuss transgressive culture in other media
• given the broad scope of the paper, you are writing about UK / American culture more generally, not about the works themselves, but how they fit into the world of ideas, themes, stories, stances. What can we learn from transgressive culture?
• you are asked to use an additional novel from the American school. It should be post 1975.
• But it's really not that different:
• your essay should be question-based, asking how a certain theme is treated in satiric / provocative literature and media - and why? What are these artists saying or how do they look at the world? And how are they reacting to mainstream culture?
• while the writing can be informal, it should be coherent, readable, given a logical structure
• as before, don't express opinions: use evidence to prove something or at least learn something about something
• Possible additional authors: Ellis, Homes, Acker, Leyner, Palahniuk, Cooper, (Denis) Johnson, Gaitskill, Roth (some); also possible: older authors like McCarthy (Blood Meridian), Mailer, Thompson: you should discuss them as forerunners. The book you pick may depend on the question you want to explore.
• What is transgressive, as we define it? Not just violent or about drug use or sexual misbehavior. It is comic and morally ambiguous. It has a notable, playful, fancy style that draws attention to itself. It takes place in a slightly unreal world. May use mythic elements. This applies to American Psycho as much as to Crank 2: High Voltage.
• Do you have to use other media? No.
• Does it have to be informal or looser? No. But if you write a formal paper, I'll judge it by those expectations - the ones you set.
• Your question may relate to: the theme of substitutes or simulacrae; the presentation of the body - changeable, subject to abuse, yet durable; the doppelganger theme; the de-evolved world-view of many transgressive books - the opposite of "progressive"; the culture and mindset of consumption; relationship of the implausible or fantastic to the realistic; author's appearance as character; the idea that one is controlled by an internal or external force - yet striving for control; use of echoes of myth.
• As I say, you're asking and answering a question, not collecting evidence about a motif. Your question could be: Satirists seem to be concerned with the limitations of the body. What are they expressing through this disrespect for the body? A nihilistic lack of concern for safety - or a belief that the spirit transcends the boundaries of the body?