Transgressional fiction

Transgressional or transgressive fiction is a genre of literature that focuses on characters who feel confined by the norms and expectations of society and who use unusual and/or illicit ways to break free of those confines. Because they are rebelling against the basic norms of society, protagonists of transgressional fiction may seem mentally ill, anti-social and/or nihilistic. The genre deals extensively with taboo subject matters such as drugs, sex, violence, incest, pedophilia, and crime.

The genre of "transgressive fiction" was defined by "Los Angeles Times" literary critic Michael Silverblatt. [http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/96dec/wrdwatch/wrdwatch.htm Word Watch — December 1996] from "The Atlantic Monthly"] Anne H. Soukhanov, a journalist for the "The Atlantic Monthly", described transgressive fiction thus::A literary genre that graphically explores such topics as incest and other aberrant sexual practices, mutilation, the sprouting of sexual organs in various places on the human body, urban violence and violence against women, drug use, and highly dysfunctional family relationships, and that is based on the premise that knowledge is to be found at the edge of experience and that the body is the site for gaining knowledge.

The genre has been the subject of controversyspecify, and many forerunners of transgressional fiction, including William S. Burroughs and Hubert Selby Jr., have been the subjects of obscenity trials.

Transgressional fiction shares similarities with splatterpunk, noir and erotic fiction in its willingness to portray forbidden behaviors and shock readers. But it differsWho|date=April 2008 in that protagonists often pursue means to better themselves and their surroundings—albeit unusual and extreme ones. Much transgressional fiction deals with searches for self-identity, inner peace and/or personal freedom. Unbound by usual restrictions of taste and literary convention, its proponents claim that transgressional fiction is capable of pungent social commentary.

There is also some overlap with Literary minimalism, as many Transgressional writers use short sentences and simplistic style.

History

The basic ideas of transgressive fiction are by no means new. Many works that are now considered classics dealt with controversial themes and harshly criticized societal norms. Early examples include the scandalous writing of the Marquis de Sade and the Comte de Lautreamont's "Les Chants de Maldoror" (1869). French author Émile Zola's works about social conditions and “bad behavior” are examples, as are Russian Fyodor Dostoyevsky's existentialist novels "Crime and Punishment" (1866) and "Notes from Underground" (1864) and Norwegian Knut Hamsun's psychologically-driven "Hunger" (1890). Sexual extravangance can be seen in two of the earliest European novels, "The Satyricon" and "The Golden Ass", and also (with disclaimers) "Moll Flanders", and some of the excesses of early Gothic fiction.

Early twentieth-century writers such as Octave Mirbeau, Georges Bataille and Arthur Schnitzler, who pungently explored psychosexual development, are also important forebears.Who|date=April 2008

On 6 December 1933, Judge John M. Woolsey overturned the federal ban on James Joyce's "Ulysses". The book was banned in the U.S. due to what the government claimed was obscenity, specifically the 90 page sex scene, depending on the version. Random House Inc. came to the United States District Court to battle the claim of obscenity and be granted permission to print the book in the United States. Judge Woolsey is often quoted explaining his removal of the ban by saying "It is only with the normal person that the law is concerned."

In the late 1950s, American publisher Grove Press, under publisher Barney Rosset, began releasing decades-old novels that had been unpublished in most of the English-speaking world for many years due to controversial subject matter. Two of these works, "Lady Chatterley's Lover," D. H. Lawrence’s tale of an upper class woman’s affair with a working class man and "Tropic of Cancer," Henry Miller’s sexual odyssey, were the subject of landmark obscenity trials ("Lady Chatterley's Lover" was also tried in the UK and Austria). Both books were ruled not obscene and forced the US literary establishment to weigh the merit of literature that would have once been instantly deemed pornographic (see Miller test).

Grove also published the explicit works of Beat writers, which led to two more obscenity trials. The first concerned "Howl," Allen Ginsberg’s 1955 poem which celebrated American counterculture decried hypocrisy and emptiness in mainstream society. The second concerned William S. Burroughs’ hallucinatory, satirical novel "Naked Lunch" (1959). Both works contained what were considered lewd descriptions of body parts and sexual, often homosexual, acts. Grove also published Hubert Selby Jr.’s anecdotal novel "Last Exit to Brooklyn" (1964), known for its gritty portrayals of criminals, prostitutes and transvestites and its crude, slang-inspired prose. "Last Exit to Brooklyn" was tried as obscene in the UK. These trials, all of which Grove Press won, paved the way both for transgressive fiction to be published legally, as well as bringing attention to these works.

In the 1970s and 80s, an entire underground of transgressive fiction flourished.Fact|date=April 2008 Its biggest starsWho|date=April 2008 included J.G. Ballard, a British writer known for his strange and frightening dystopian novels; Kathy Acker, an American known for her sexually blunt but still feminist fiction and Charles Bukowski, an American known for his tales of womanizing, drinking and gambling. The notorious 1971 film version of Anthony Burgess' "A Clockwork Orange", contained scenes of rape and "ultraviolence" by a futuristic youth cult complete with its own fully developed lexicon, and was a major influence on popular culture; it was subsequently withdrawn in the UK, and heavily censored in the USA. Its author claimed it as a morality tale.

In the 1990s, the rise of alternative rock and its distinctly downbeat subculture opened the door for transgressive writers to become more influential and commercially successful than ever before.Fact|date=April 2008 This is exemplified by the influence of Canadian Douglas Coupland’s 1990 novel "," which explored the economically bleak and apocalypse-fixated worldview of Coupland's age group. The novel popularized the term generation X to describe this age demographic. Other influential authors of this decade include Bret Easton Ellis, known for novels about depraved yuppies; Irvine Welsh known for his portrayals of Scotland’s drug-addicted working class youth and Chuck Palahniuk, known for his characters' bizarre attempts to escape bland consumer culture. Both of Elizabeth Young's volumes of literary criticism from this period deal extensively and exclusively with this range of authors and the contexts in which their works can be viewed.

In the UK, the genre owes a considerable influence to “working class literature”Fact|date=April 2008, which often portrays characters trying to escape poverty by inventive means while, in the US, the genre focuses more on middle class characters trying to escape the emotional and spiritual limitations of their lifestyle.

Authors

*M. Ageyev
*Jonathan Ames
*Steve Aylett
*Iain Banks
*Frédéric Beigbeder
*Nicole Blackman
*Maurice Blanchot
*Poppy Z. Brite
*Jan Bucquoy
*Edward Bunker
*Céline
*Noah Cicero
*Dennis Cooper
*Harry Crews
*James Curcio
*Samuel R. Delany
*Bernd Dost
*Frederick Exley
*Amanda Filipacchi
*Mary Gaitskill
*Scott Heim
*Amy Hempel
*Stewart Home
*A. M. Homes
*Michel Houellebecq
*Herbert Huncke
*Gary Indiana
*Travis Jeppesen
*JT LeRoy
*Carlton Mellick III
*Seth Morgan
*Charu Nivedita
*Charlotte Roche
*Joel Rose
*Will Self
*Kenji Siratori
*Matt Bernstein Sycamore
*Alexander Trocchi
*William T. Vollman
*Dimitris Voyatzis
*David Foster Wallace
*Jack Womack

Notable works

This is a short list of works of transgressional fiction that are of considerable popularity and/or influence:
*"American Psycho" by Bret Easton Ellis
*"Boy Wonder" by James Robert Baker
*"The Contortionist's Handbook" by Craig Clevenger
*"Crash" by J. G. Ballard
*"The Dice Man" by Luke Rhinehart
*"Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" by Hunter S. Thompson
*"Kentucky Ham" by William S. Burroughs, Jr.
*"Kiss Me, Judas" by Will Christopher Baer
*"Looking for Mr. Goodbar" by Judith Rossner
*"Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov
*"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" by Ken Kesey
*"Puberty Blues" by Gabrielle Carey and Kathy Lette
*"Queer" by William S. Burroughs
*"Requiem for a Dream" by Hubert Selby Jr.
*"Speed" by William S. Burroughs, Jr.
*"Story of the Eye" by Georges Bataille
*"The Toy Collector" by James Gunn
*"Trainspotting" by Irvine Welsh
*"The Monkey Wrench Gang" by Edward Abbey
*"Fight Club" by Chuck Palahniuk

References

External links

* [http://www.transgressionalfiction.com/ The Transgressional Fiction Writers Network]