Methodology in progress

This is my methodology-in-progress for my research project:

            Out of a research framework consisting in Southern Studies, Masculinity, and Feminist interpretations of Noir literature, I will then construct a reading of various key points in All the King’s Men, paying initial attention to Burden and Stark’s first meeting and the nihilistic ennui that consumes Burden before Willie Stark consolidates Burden into his fascist ranks.  Similarly, I will evaluate this paternalist relationship and set it against the other model’s of masculinity (typically paternal) Burden has available, paying keen attention to Judge Irwin, Adam Stanton, and Willie Stark, and how they each contrast to the persona projected by Burden’s narration.  From there I will move to the first mentions of a few, key women who appear in the book: Sadie Burke, Burden’s mother, and Anne Stanton, as I tie together the imperatives driving the style and content of Burden’s narration and how these imperatives render the narration a recognizably masculine performance though he has fails throughout the novel to achieve an active masculinity like Willie Stark, Adam Stanton, or Judge Irwin, ensnared as he is in this “Reflective Masochistic” state. 

Some further considerations...

            Beyond these evaluations and investigations, my research project might be used to stage a larger assertion that grounds “Reflexive Masochism” as a prerequisite condition to many of the first person, white, male narrators of noir literature and cinema.  Also, this research might go a long way into further informing gender performance as a key element to any first person narration in terms Narrative Theory.