Abstract:
This thesis examines the representation of consumer culture in Fight Club within the context of Frederic Jameson's theory of postmodernism. I propose that the film represents consumer culture as a totalizing system. This representation is evident in the setting of the film and in the Narrator's attempt to escape from consumer culture.
Within this framework for the discussion, I argue that the Narrator's initial attempts to
rebel against consumer culture replicate, rather than change, the system he is trying to rebel against. I then place Fight Club within a taxonomy of films that represent
consumer culture similarly, demonstrating that multiple postmodern films of the late
1990s question the degree to which escape and resistance is possible in a totalizing system.
