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Thesis (MA)--University of Montana, 2009. / Contents viewed on November 29, 2009. Title from author supplied metadata. Includes bibliographical references.

Many critics have conceded that Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian is an ambiguous novel; however, the very same critics have often argued also that the novel’s contradictions are eventually resolved. It will be argued in this essay that the multiplicity of McCarthy’s text primarily regards a problematic of agency—a question as to whether or not humanity is a force to be reckoned with in the world. It will also be argued that this question takes the form of a dialectic that the novel leaves unresolved, and that this, in its turn, is an important feature of the text—a feature originating from contemporary ideology, from late capitalism’s contradictory-ridden relation to the ”Real”. Blood Meridian portrays atrocities resulting from the 19th century Westward expansion of the United States unsparingly; the reader gets to witness a violent subsumption of the indigenous population, and is informed about a nascent extinction of the buffalo. The text also implicitly discusses the difficulties of representing violence and suffering aesthetically; however, Blood Meridian offers no final conclusion regarding whether or not humanity—and especially the Western World—is ultimately to blame for these phenomena. Via an unresolved dialectic of agency, then, McCarthy’s text renders history both alterable and reified, mankind both agent and powerless instrument. The following essay traces this feature to late capitalism’s exhaustion of the Earth’s resources and animal life, its Western-centric subjugation of other cultures, and its tendency to interpellate Western “man” as the centered subject of the Earth, while simultaneously liberating this subject from the responsibilities that come with such a position. It will eventually be proposed here that Blood Meridian’s contradictions is the result of a text that seeks redemption, both by an evasive attempt to write humanity back into harmony with nature, and by expressing a declaration of Western guilt.

Although scholars have widely acknowledged the prevalence of religious reference in the work of Cormac McCarthy, no studies have yet paid any adequate attention to the most pervasive religious trope in all his works: the image of sacrament, and in particular, of eucharist. I contend that a thorough and appropriately informed study of sacrament in the work of Cormac McCarthy can uniquely illuminate his whole body of writing and I undertake that study in this dissertation. Two things are obvious in the work of Cormac McCarthy: that these novels attempt to establish some sort of moral system in light of metaphysical collapse, and that they are often adorned with sacramental imagery. My argument is that these two facts can and do intelligibly speak to one another, and that a particular theological understanding of sacrament demonstrates how. By reading McCarthy alongside postmodern accounts of action, identity, subjectivity, and narration, I show how he exploits Christian theology in order to locate the value of human acts and relations in a sacramentally immanent way. This is not to claim McCarthy for theology, but it is to assert that McCarthy generates an account of what goodness might look like in a death-ridden world through reference to the theological tradition of sacrament. I begin by addressing the scope and source of McCarthy’s violence. In Blood Meridian and No Country for Old Men I read McCarthy as following Nietzsche in scorning an ascetic ideal that locates the value of life beyond life. The ideas of reason and fate in Nietzsche as they develop in Adorno and Arendt is then studied in these same novels. Arendtian ideas of action deeply influence my reading of Suttree next, and this lead into a study of storytelling in the three novels of the border trilogy which is again deeply indebted to Arendtian notions of narration. Last, I look to contemporary theology and The Road for examples of sacrament that can cohere these various themes under a single sign and establish the grounds for a postmodern morality.

Zugl.: Augsburg, Univ., Diss., 2008

In this dissertation a comparative study is undertaken of an Afrikaans novel, Willem Anker’s Buys: ’n Grensroman (2014) and an American novel, Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian, or The Evening Redness in the West (1985). The study focuses on the nature and function of carnivalesque elements in the portrayal of violence in the two novels. The theory of the carnivalesque, as developed by Mikhail Bakhtin in Rabelais and His World (1984), serves as a broad theoretical point of departure, while Steven Frye’s article “Blood Meridian and the Poetics of Violence” (2013) serves more specifically as a theoretical approach for the investigation into the protrayal of violence in the two novels. Following on Frye’s view of the carnivalesque as an “aesthetic strategy”, reference is made to the views of Terry Eagleton, Kenneth Burke and Fredric Jameson who regard the text as a strategic reaction to a given situation or context. The novels are consequently approached with due consideration to the violent contexts in which they were written, namely America in the wake of the Vietnam War in the case of Blood Meridian and the violence-ridden postcolonial South Africa in Buys’s case. Connections between the carnivalesque and postcolonial discourse as well as between the carnivalesque and violence are explored. The aestheticisation of extreme violence in Blood Meridian and Buys through the utilisation of carnivalesque images coupled with poetic, richly imagistic language which involves the reader emotionally, is briefly demonstrated. Ethical reservations regarding the aestheticisation of violence in literature are explored, while the ethical value Kearney atrributes to a narrative approach to historical violence is also considered. This is followed by a comparative analysis of violent scenes in the two novels in which the grotesque body, carnivalesque clothing, the carnivalesque blending of the kitchen with the battlefield and carnivalesque language occur. Finally the study concludes that the utilisation of carnivalesque imagery in scenes of violence in Blood Meridian and Buys is an aesthetic strategy whereby the reader’s experience of those historic atrocities are intensified as a result of being emotionally drawn to the events. This hightens the reader’s consciousness of the historical reality of moral transgression – a function performed by the original Medieval carnival – and calls attention to the fact that the violence demands an ethical response. / In hierdie verhandeling word ’n vergelykende studie onderneem van ’n Afrikaanse roman, Willem Anker se Buys: ’n Grensroman (2014), en ’n Amerikaanse roman, Cormac McCarthy se Blood Meridian, or The Evening Redness in the West (1985). Die studie fokus op die aard en funksie van karnavaleske elemente in die uitbeelding van geweld in die twee romans. Die teorie van die karnavaleske, soos ontwikkel deur Mikhail Bakhtin in Rabelais and His World (1984) dien as breë teoretiese vertrekpunt, terwyl Steven Frye se artikel “Blood Meridian and the Poetics of Violence” (2013) meer spesifiek as teoretiese invalshoek dien vir die ondersoek na die uitbeelding van geweld in die twee romans. Na aanleiding van Frye se beskouing van die karnavaleske as ’n “estetiese strategie” word daar ook aansluiting gevind by Terry Eagleton, Kenneth Burke en Fredric Jameson se sienings van die literêre teks as ’n strategiese reaksie op ’n gegewe situasie of konteks. Die romans word dus benader met inagneming van die gewelddadige kontekste waarbinne hulle gestalte gekry het, te wete Amerika in die nadraai van die Viëtnam-oorlog in die geval van Blood Meridian en die geweldgeteisterde postkoloniale Suid-Afrika in Buys se geval. Verbande word getrek tussen die karnavaleske en die postkoloniale diskoers, asook tussen die karnavaleske en geweld. Daar word kortliks aangetoon hoedat ekstreme geweld in Blood Meridian en Buys verestetiseer word deur karnavaleske beelde wat gepaard gaan met poëtiese, beeldryke taalgebruik wat die leser emosioneel betrek. Daar word stilgestaan by etiese voorbehoude oor die verestetisering van geweld in literatuur, terwyl die etiese waarde wat Kearney heg aan ’n narratiewe benadering tot historiese geweld ook onder die loep kom. Dit word gevolg deur ’n vergelykende ontleding van geweldstonele in die twee romans waarin die groteske liggaam, karnavaleske kleredrag, die karnavaleske vermenging van die kombuis en die slagveld en karnavaleske taalgebruik voorkom. Ten slotte word tot die gevolgtrekking gekom dat die aanwending van karnavaleske beelde in geweldstonele in Blood Meridian en Buys ’n estetiese strategie is waardeur die leser se ervaring van daardie geweldsvergrype in die verlede geïntensiveer word deurdat hy emosioneel daarby betrek word. Dit verhoog die leser se bewustheid van die historiese werklikheid van morele transgressie – ’n rol wat ook deur die oorspronklike karnaval in die Middeleeue vertolk is – en maak ’n appèl op die leser dat die geweldsvergrype ’n etiese respons vereis. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns / Afrikaans / MA / Unrestricted

O romance The Road (2006) representa um desvio na carreira do escritor norte-americano Cormac McCarthy. Sua prosa concisa e seu cenário apocalíptico marcam um distanciamento tanto de seus primeiros romances (mais próximos do gótico sulista) quanto dos mais recentes (westerns). Acompanhando a jornada de um Pai e um Filho por um país devastado, o autor faz um comentário sobre os Estados Unidos contemporâneo do pós-11 de setembro e da ascensão neoconservadora e fortalecimento do neoliberalismo. Com o intuito de investigar como o livro figura o presente, essa dissertação evidencia elementos de nosso tempo que se materializam na narrativa. Para isso, num primeiro momento, situa a obra do escritor no panorama da literatura americana contemporânea, e o papel de The Road dentro da bibliografia de McCarthy, culminando com a análise do foco narrativo, e o que ele representa. A partir disso, o eixo do trabalho se torna a produção literária do 11 de setembro, e novamente como o romance se destaca dentro desta contrapondo-o a outra obra contemporânea a ele: Falling Man, de Don DeLillo. Por fim, a análise formal da narrativa irá discutir o apocalipse e dialética estabelecida entre ele e a distopia, que são duas forças em duelo no livro. Assim, articulando esse movimento investigamos o papel dos personagens, cenário e tempo. Conforme teoriza Fredric Jameson, vivemos na era do Capitalismo Tardio, também chamada de Pós-Modernidade, e esta se concretiza ao longo do romance, conforme demonstramos nessa análise. A principal base teórica, novamente, é dada por Jameson em seu The Political Unconscious, além de conceitos formulados por Tom Moylan sobre utopia/distopia, e Frank Kermode sobre apocalipse, entre outros. / The novel The Road (2006) represents a detour in the writings of American novelist Cormac McCarthy. Its concise prose and apocalyptic setting signalize a departure both from his early novels (which are closer to the Southern Gothic) than his latest ones (Westerns). By following a Father and Sons journey through a devastated country, the author makes a commentary on contemporary United States of the post-9/11, and the rise of the neocons and the strengthening of neoliberalism. In order to investigate how the book figures the present, this master thesis highlights elements of our time that materialize in the narrative. Thereunto, it starts locating McCarthys work in the contemporary American literature, and The Roads role in his bibliography, culminating in the analysis of the focalization in this novel, and what it represents. Afterwards, the axis of the this work turns to the 9/11 literary production, and once again how the novel stands out in this group opposing The Road to another contemporary book: Don DeLillos Falling Man. Lastly, the formal analysis of the narrative will investigate the apocalypse and the dialectic established between it and dystopia, which are the two forces dueling in the book. Thus, by articulating this movement we investigate the role of the characters, setting and time. As Fredric Jameson theorizes, we live in the age of Late Capitalism, also known as Post-Modernity, and this appears throughout the novel, as we will demonstrate in the present work. The main theoretical foundation of this thesis is, again, given by Jameson in his The Political Unconscious, in addition to concepts formulated by Tom Moylan on utopia/dystopia, and Frank Kermonde on apocalypse, among others.

O romance The Road (2006) representa um desvio na carreira do escritor norte-americano Cormac McCarthy. Sua prosa concisa e seu cenário apocalíptico marcam um distanciamento tanto de seus primeiros romances (mais próximos do gótico sulista) quanto dos mais recentes (westerns). Acompanhando a jornada de um Pai e um Filho por um país devastado, o autor faz um comentário sobre os Estados Unidos contemporâneo do pós-11 de setembro e da ascensão neoconservadora e fortalecimento do neoliberalismo. Com o intuito de investigar como o livro figura o presente, essa dissertação evidencia elementos de nosso tempo que se materializam na narrativa. Para isso, num primeiro momento, situa a obra do escritor no panorama da literatura americana contemporânea, e o papel de The Road dentro da bibliografia de McCarthy, culminando com a análise do foco narrativo, e o que ele representa. A partir disso, o eixo do trabalho se torna a produção literária do 11 de setembro, e novamente como o romance se destaca dentro desta contrapondo-o a outra obra contemporânea a ele: Falling Man, de Don DeLillo. Por fim, a análise formal da narrativa irá discutir o apocalipse e dialética estabelecida entre ele e a distopia, que são duas forças em duelo no livro. Assim, articulando esse movimento investigamos o papel dos personagens, cenário e tempo. Conforme teoriza Fredric Jameson, vivemos na era do Capitalismo Tardio, também chamada de Pós-Modernidade, e esta se concretiza ao longo do romance, conforme demonstramos nessa análise. A principal base teórica, novamente, é dada por Jameson em seu The Political Unconscious, além de conceitos formulados por Tom Moylan sobre utopia/distopia, e Frank Kermode sobre apocalipse, entre outros. / The novel The Road (2006) represents a detour in the writings of American novelist Cormac McCarthy. Its concise prose and apocalyptic setting signalize a departure both from his early novels (which are closer to the Southern Gothic) than his latest ones (Westerns). By following a Father and Sons journey through a devastated country, the author makes a commentary on contemporary United States of the post-9/11, and the rise of the neocons and the strengthening of neoliberalism. In order to investigate how the book figures the present, this master thesis highlights elements of our time that materialize in the narrative. Thereunto, it starts locating McCarthys work in the contemporary American literature, and The Roads role in his bibliography, culminating in the analysis of the focalization in this novel, and what it represents. Afterwards, the axis of the this work turns to the 9/11 literary production, and once again how the novel stands out in this group opposing The Road to another contemporary book: Don DeLillos Falling Man. Lastly, the formal analysis of the narrative will investigate the apocalypse and the dialectic established between it and dystopia, which are the two forces dueling in the book. Thus, by articulating this movement we investigate the role of the characters, setting and time. As Fredric Jameson theorizes, we live in the age of Late Capitalism, also known as Post-Modernity, and this appears throughout the novel, as we will demonstrate in the present work. The main theoretical foundation of this thesis is, again, given by Jameson in his The Political Unconscious, in addition to concepts formulated by Tom Moylan on utopia/dystopia, and Frank Kermonde on apocalypse, among others.

There are many textual and thematic similarities between Dante’s Inferno and Cormac McCarthy’s Outer Dark. There are also significant textual similarities between the New Testament and McCarthy’s third novel, Child of God. Juxtaposing Outer Dark and Child of God to Inferno and the New Testament, respectively, suggests a common trope that redemption requires characters’ name and repent of sin.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Texas A & M University, 2003. / "May 2003." Title taken from PDF title screen (viewed October 22, 2007). Includes bibliographical references (p. 178-184).