Awkward. My topic for the research paper is a psychoanalytic view of the narrator/narration in Fight Club. Yikes. And of course, this is the one type of paper mentioned in class as what NOT to do. However I think that may saving grace may be that the narrator in David Fincher's Fight Club is more than a character, he is the narration and I can focus on that and perhaps I can just re-work the thesis a little. I wanted to focus mainly on the image of the family projected on Tyler, Narrator, and the members in Project mayhem. Even though there is a total lack of the feminine in this "family" it still creates an Oedipus complex which (SPOILER ALERT although i am sure everybody has seen this movie) leads to the narrator killing the Tyler Durden- his projected father. This Oedipus complex reveals how truly emasculated these characters, and in turn male society feels. Because of this they are trying to re-write history in a patriarchal fashion.I had a hard time deciding what to do, I couldn't think of a text- or a theory that I wanted to write about, so I looked at the sheet that McGuire gave us to choose from and saw that there was a Marxist reading of Fight Club and I thought that I would enjoy doing a paper on Fight Club and then I found a whole bunch of articles about masculinity, sexuality, patriarchal society and the Oedipus complex in Fight Club and I decided to go from there.
The articles I found are:
A Generation of Men Without History by Krister Friday
Fight Club and the Dangers of Oedipal Obsession by Paul Kennett
and
Private Satisfactions and Public Disorders: Fight Club, Patriarchy,and the Politics of Masculine Violence by Henry A. Giroux
Obviously I am still slightly confused/overwhelmed. So I welcome and comments or suggestions.
And I am sorry I couldn't think of a corny Fight Club joke to put in here. So I went with a picture instead.
over and out,
Ben Kelley.
1 comment:
I LOVE YOUR IDEA FOR YOUR PAPER. Truly. I'm very excited. I think you are definitely on the right track with the different ideas for your paper that you presented in your post. Are you going to talk about how Tyler Durden has this badass, high masculine persona that Edward Norton envies (before he figures out it is him), and how that plays into things at all? Also, I have the book Fight Club by Chuck Palanuick, and if you haven't read it yet, I highly suggest you do, I think it would be excellent for your paper. Let me know if you're interested - this is Sarah by the way so you know who to contact if you do - good luck, I'm really excited about your topic!!
Post a Comment