Sacred and Immoral: On the Writings of Chuck Palahniuk [Hardcover]

Jeffrey A. Sartain (Author, Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2009

Sacred and Immoral: On the Writings of Chuck Palahniuk, edited by Jeffrey A. Sartain, combines the efforts of an international list of writers to explore the depths of Chuck Palahniuk's fiction. Scholars have paid attention Palahniuk's premiere novel, Fight Club, for years. Sacred and Immoral is the first anthology dedicated to scholarship focused on Palahniuk's work following Fight Club, which he has been producing at an average of a book a year for thirteen years. By collecting the work of an interdisciplinary group of scholars under a single cover, Sacred and Immoral extends the reach of Palahniuk scholarship beyond any previous publication. Sacred and Immoral provides the single most comprehensive and useful scholarly resource to date for anyone wishing to examine Chuck Palahniuk's fiction in an academic context. Some of the anthology's chapters situate Palahniuk's work within existing generic conventions, while other chapters are concerned with the theoretical underpinnings of Palahniuk's writing and the philosophical implications of his work. With eleven new critical analyses of Palahniuk's later novels, Sacred and Immoral drastically expands the range and depth of academic inquiry into Palahniuk's fiction commensurate with the prominent and exciting position Palahniuk's work occupies in contemporary culture. "Sacred and Immoral" also includes a new interview with Chuck Palahniuk, conducted by literary scholar Matt Kavanagh. Finally, Sacred and Immoral boasts the most complete primary and secondary bibliographies of Palahniuk-related materials to date. Sacred and Immoral is not an attempt to have the last word on Chuck Palahniuk's literature. Rather, this volume is a springboard for other projects that relate to Palahniuk's writings. The anthology provides a critical framework for Palahniuk's later literature that students, teachers, and researchers can use in their own classrooms and writing.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jeffrey A. Sartain teaches literature and composition at Indiana University, where he is completing his Ph.D. in English. His myriad interests include contemporary literature, contemporary film, and creative writing. His writing and interviews have appeared in publications all over the world, including Indiana Review, Ninth Letter, American Book Review, Stirrings Still, and South Africa's Weekender. Sacred and Immoral is his first edited collection.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 250 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing; New edition edition (May 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1443803286
• ISBN-13: 978-1443803281
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,493,613 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pricey for a reason..., August 12, 2009

By 

T. Moram "'Well then'" (England, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sacred and Immoral: On the Writings of Chuck Palahniuk (Hardcover)

This book is expensive, but not because they are 'money grabbing' or trying to rip people off and make loads of money out of it. The following is a quote from the guy who made the book Jeff Sartain.....

The goal of this volume was to release a piece of scholarship on Chuck Palahniuk's work after "Fight Club." Since the film came out, there has been a lot of scholarship and commentary about the book and the film, but almost no scholarly work dedicated to Chuck's ever-growing catalog of great books. Sacred and Immoral is our effort to start filling in this gap in academic literature, so that scholars and teachers have tools to build projects and classes on Chuck's later work.

Unfortunately (as one Amazon troll so eloquently noted), the volume is a bit pricey. Unfortunately this is one of the downsides to academic publishing -- the audience for scholarly work is much smaller, so the price for each volume has to be proportionally higher to offset the printing costs for a relatively small run of books. Believe me, no one publishes scholarly volumes to get rich; the high price of scholarly volumes reflects the high overhead involved in producing hardcover books in small runs.

As such, the primary audiences for volumes like mine are scholars and libraries. If you don't want to buy the book yourself, but do want to read it, encourage your local or university library to purchase a copy for their collection. The access the library provides helps fulfill the volume's primary purpose, which is to expand the conversation about Chuck into new territory.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent and much needed scholary work!, August 13, 2009

By 

Emily Dotson (University of Kentucky) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sacred and Immoral: On the Writings of Chuck Palahniuk (Hardcover)

This book is a valuable first in Palahniuk scholarship! It should be invaluable to film and literary scholars as well as culture theorists alike who study and teach the works of Palahniuk. The essays provide a good variety of critical perspectives from gender theory to Foucault. What is more it addresses Palahniuk texts beyond Fight Club, the texts often critically ignored, but as this collection shows, easily just as rewarding to serious study. The essays by Johnson and Riekki are particularly engaging and thoughful. In summary, a very much needed scholarly collection that also makes for a marvelously interesting read.