The Manifest Destiny of the American Antihero: Regenerative Violence in Mario Puzo’s The Godfather and Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club

Abstract

Popular culture has gradually been enriched with invaluable contributions and intellectual worthiness, ushering this burgeoning phenomenon into the academic world of literary and cultural studies. This research examines the role of popular fiction in assessing, criticizing and inspecting paramount aspects such as the American Manifest Destiny. Ergo, the present thesis leads a comparative study between Mario Puzo's The Godfather (1969) and Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club (1996). The aim of this inquiry is to evaluate the progress of the portrayed antiheroes, represented by Michael Corleone and Tyler Durden, in their attempts to delegitimize the Manifest Destiny. Specifically, this study is based on French philosopher Jean François Lyotard and his considerations of cultural narratives - such as that of the Manifest Destiny - as a "metanarrative" that accentuates the incredulity of postmodernism. Moreover, this research uses Richard Slotkin's theory of "Regeneration through Violence" to relate the violent frontier archetype to the regenerative violence inscribed in the Manifest Destiny. The analysis also relies on John G. Cawelti and his concept of "Formula" that provides proper value to the arts of popular culture. The research findings reveal a progressively radical attitude - both in terms of the tools employed and the goals intended - in delegitimizing the myth of the Manifest Destiny. They also suggest that this reformist stance reflects a new awareness of an evolving American audience. Finally, the concluding results stress the ability of popular culture in construing a dynamic formula of cultural resistance.