Cormac McCarthy and the Myth of American Exceptionalism

Cormac McCarthy and the Myth of American Exceptionalism

Author: John Cant

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-01-11

Total Pages: 370

ISBN-13: 1136094989

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This overview of McCarthy’s published work to date, including: the short stories he published as a student, his novels, stage play and TV film script, locates him as a icocolastic writer, engaged in deconstructing America’s vision of itself as a nation with an exceptionalist role in the world. Introductory chapters outline his personal background and the influences on his early years in Tennessee whilst each of his works is dealt with in a separate chapter listed in chronological order of publication.


Book Synopsis Cormac McCarthy and the Myth of American Exceptionalism by : John Cant

Download or read book Cormac McCarthy and the Myth of American Exceptionalism written by John Cant and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-01-11 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This overview of McCarthy’s published work to date, including: the short stories he published as a student, his novels, stage play and TV film script, locates him as a icocolastic writer, engaged in deconstructing America’s vision of itself as a nation with an exceptionalist role in the world. Introductory chapters outline his personal background and the influences on his early years in Tennessee whilst each of his works is dealt with in a separate chapter listed in chronological order of publication.


Cormac McCarthy

Cormac McCarthy

Author: Sterling Professor of Humanities Harold Bloom

Publisher: Infobase Publishing

Published: 2014-05-14

Total Pages: 225

ISBN-13: 1438119283

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Presents a collection of critical essays about the works of Cormac McCarthy.


Book Synopsis Cormac McCarthy by : Sterling Professor of Humanities Harold Bloom

Download or read book Cormac McCarthy written by Sterling Professor of Humanities Harold Bloom and published by Infobase Publishing. This book was released on 2014-05-14 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents a collection of critical essays about the works of Cormac McCarthy.


The Myth of American Exceptionalism

The Myth of American Exceptionalism

Author: Godfrey Hodgson

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2009-01-27

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 0300142684

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The idea that the United States is destined to spread its unique gifts of democracy and capitalism to other countries is dangerous for Americans and for the rest of the world, warns Godfrey Hodgson in this provocative book. Hodgson, a shrewd and highly respected British commentator, argues that America is not as exceptional as it would like to think; its blindness to its own history has bred a complacent nationalism and a disastrous foreign policy that has isolated and alienated it from the global community. Tracing the development of America’s high self regard from the early days of the republic to the present era, Hodgson demonstrates how its exceptionalism has been systematically exaggerated and—in recent decades—corrupted. While there have been distinct and original elements in America’s history and political philosophy, notes Hodgson, these have always been more heavily influenced by European thought and experience than Americans have been willing to acknowledge. A stimulating and timely assessment of how America’s belief in its exceptionalism has led it astray, this book is mandatory reading for its citizens, admirers, and detractors.


Book Synopsis The Myth of American Exceptionalism by : Godfrey Hodgson

Download or read book The Myth of American Exceptionalism written by Godfrey Hodgson and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2009-01-27 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The idea that the United States is destined to spread its unique gifts of democracy and capitalism to other countries is dangerous for Americans and for the rest of the world, warns Godfrey Hodgson in this provocative book. Hodgson, a shrewd and highly respected British commentator, argues that America is not as exceptional as it would like to think; its blindness to its own history has bred a complacent nationalism and a disastrous foreign policy that has isolated and alienated it from the global community. Tracing the development of America’s high self regard from the early days of the republic to the present era, Hodgson demonstrates how its exceptionalism has been systematically exaggerated and—in recent decades—corrupted. While there have been distinct and original elements in America’s history and political philosophy, notes Hodgson, these have always been more heavily influenced by European thought and experience than Americans have been willing to acknowledge. A stimulating and timely assessment of how America’s belief in its exceptionalism has led it astray, this book is mandatory reading for its citizens, admirers, and detractors.


Religion in Cormac McCarthy's Fiction

Religion in Cormac McCarthy's Fiction

Author: Manuel Broncano

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-11-20

Total Pages: 196

ISBN-13: 1317915321

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This book addresses the religious scope of Cormac McCarthy’s fiction, one of the most controversial issues in studies of his work. Current criticism is divided between those who find a theological dimension in his works, and those who reject such an approach on the grounds that the nihilist discourse characteristic of his narrative is incompatible with any religious message. McCarthy’s tendencies toward religious themes have become increasingly more acute, revealing that McCarthy has adopted the biblical language and rhetoric to compose an "apocryphal" narrative of the American Southwest while exploring the human innate tendency to evil in the line of Herman Melville and William Faulkner, both literary progenitors of the writer. Broncano argues that this apocryphal narrative is written against the background of the Bible, a peculiar Pentateuch in which Blood Meridian functions as the Book of Genesis, the Border Trilogy functions as the Gospels, and No Country for Old Men as the Book of Revelation, while The Road is the post-apocalyptic sequel. This book analyzes the novels included in what Broncano defines as the South-Western cycle (from Blood Meridian to The Road) in search of the religious foundations that support the narrative architecture of the texts.


Book Synopsis Religion in Cormac McCarthy's Fiction by : Manuel Broncano

Download or read book Religion in Cormac McCarthy's Fiction written by Manuel Broncano and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-11-20 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book addresses the religious scope of Cormac McCarthy’s fiction, one of the most controversial issues in studies of his work. Current criticism is divided between those who find a theological dimension in his works, and those who reject such an approach on the grounds that the nihilist discourse characteristic of his narrative is incompatible with any religious message. McCarthy’s tendencies toward religious themes have become increasingly more acute, revealing that McCarthy has adopted the biblical language and rhetoric to compose an "apocryphal" narrative of the American Southwest while exploring the human innate tendency to evil in the line of Herman Melville and William Faulkner, both literary progenitors of the writer. Broncano argues that this apocryphal narrative is written against the background of the Bible, a peculiar Pentateuch in which Blood Meridian functions as the Book of Genesis, the Border Trilogy functions as the Gospels, and No Country for Old Men as the Book of Revelation, while The Road is the post-apocalyptic sequel. This book analyzes the novels included in what Broncano defines as the South-Western cycle (from Blood Meridian to The Road) in search of the religious foundations that support the narrative architecture of the texts.


Cormac McCarthy

Cormac McCarthy

Author: Markus Wierschem

Publisher: MSU Press

Published: 2024-02-01

Total Pages: 425

ISBN-13: 1628955155

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This definitive assessment of Cormac McCarthy’s novels captures the interactions among the literary and mythic elements, the social dynamics of violence, and the natural world in The Orchard Keeper, Child of God, Outer Dark, Blood Meridian, and The Road. Elegantly written and deeply engaged with previous scholarship as well as interviews with the novelist, this study provides a comprehensive introduction to McCarthy’s work while offering an insightful new analysis. Drawing on René Girard’s mimetic theory, mythography, thermodynamics, and information science, Markus Wierschem identifies a literary apocalypse at the center of McCarthy’s work, one that unveils another buried deep within the history, religion, and myths of American and Western culture.


Book Synopsis Cormac McCarthy by : Markus Wierschem

Download or read book Cormac McCarthy written by Markus Wierschem and published by MSU Press. This book was released on 2024-02-01 with total page 425 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This definitive assessment of Cormac McCarthy’s novels captures the interactions among the literary and mythic elements, the social dynamics of violence, and the natural world in The Orchard Keeper, Child of God, Outer Dark, Blood Meridian, and The Road. Elegantly written and deeply engaged with previous scholarship as well as interviews with the novelist, this study provides a comprehensive introduction to McCarthy’s work while offering an insightful new analysis. Drawing on René Girard’s mimetic theory, mythography, thermodynamics, and information science, Markus Wierschem identifies a literary apocalypse at the center of McCarthy’s work, one that unveils another buried deep within the history, religion, and myths of American and Western culture.


Hypermasculinities in the Contemporary Novel

Hypermasculinities in the Contemporary Novel

Author: Josef Benson

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2014-07-16

Total Pages: 159

ISBN-13: 1442237619

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Issues of race, gender, women’s rights, masculinity, and sexuality continue to be debated on the national scene. These subjects have also been in the forefront of American literature, particularly in the last fifty years. One significant trend in contemporary fiction has been the failure of the heroic masculine protagonist. In Hypermasculinities in the Contemporary Novel: Cormac McCarthy, Toni Morrison, andJames Baldwin,Josef Benson examines key literary works of the twentieth century, notably Blood Meridian (1985), All the Pretty Horses (1992), Song of Solomon (1977), and Another Country (1960). Benson argues that exaggerated masculinities originated on the American frontier and have transformed into a definition of ideal masculinity embraced by many southern rural American men. Defined by violence, racism, sexism, and homophobia, these men concocted or perpetuated myths about African Americans to justify their mistreatment and mass murder of black men after Reconstruction. As Benson illustrates, the protagonists in these texts fail to perpetuate hypermasculinities, and as a result a sense of ironic heroism emerges from the narratives. Offering a unique and bold argument that connects the masculinities of cowboys and frontier figures with black males, Hypermasculinities in the Contemporary Novel suggests alternative possibilities for American men going forward. Scholars and students of American literature and culture, African American literature and culture, and queer and gender theory will find this book illuminating and persuasive.


Book Synopsis Hypermasculinities in the Contemporary Novel by : Josef Benson

Download or read book Hypermasculinities in the Contemporary Novel written by Josef Benson and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2014-07-16 with total page 159 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Issues of race, gender, women’s rights, masculinity, and sexuality continue to be debated on the national scene. These subjects have also been in the forefront of American literature, particularly in the last fifty years. One significant trend in contemporary fiction has been the failure of the heroic masculine protagonist. In Hypermasculinities in the Contemporary Novel: Cormac McCarthy, Toni Morrison, andJames Baldwin,Josef Benson examines key literary works of the twentieth century, notably Blood Meridian (1985), All the Pretty Horses (1992), Song of Solomon (1977), and Another Country (1960). Benson argues that exaggerated masculinities originated on the American frontier and have transformed into a definition of ideal masculinity embraced by many southern rural American men. Defined by violence, racism, sexism, and homophobia, these men concocted or perpetuated myths about African Americans to justify their mistreatment and mass murder of black men after Reconstruction. As Benson illustrates, the protagonists in these texts fail to perpetuate hypermasculinities, and as a result a sense of ironic heroism emerges from the narratives. Offering a unique and bold argument that connects the masculinities of cowboys and frontier figures with black males, Hypermasculinities in the Contemporary Novel suggests alternative possibilities for American men going forward. Scholars and students of American literature and culture, African American literature and culture, and queer and gender theory will find this book illuminating and persuasive.


A Companion to American Gothic

A Companion to American Gothic

Author: Charles L. Crow

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2013-09-10

Total Pages: 60

ISBN-13: 1118608429

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A Companion to American Gothic features a collection of original essays that explore America’s gothic literary tradition. The largest collection of essays in the field of American Gothic Contributions from a wide variety of scholars from around the world The most complete coverage of theory, major authors, popular culture and non-print media available


Book Synopsis A Companion to American Gothic by : Charles L. Crow

Download or read book A Companion to American Gothic written by Charles L. Crow and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2013-09-10 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Companion to American Gothic features a collection of original essays that explore America’s gothic literary tradition. The largest collection of essays in the field of American Gothic Contributions from a wide variety of scholars from around the world The most complete coverage of theory, major authors, popular culture and non-print media available


Cormac McCarthy

Cormac McCarthy

Author: Robert L. Jarrett

Publisher: Macmillan Reference USA

Published: 1997

Total Pages: 200

ISBN-13:

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In this astute and learned analysis of McCarthy's fiction, Robert Jarrett looks at all seven of the novels published to date and responds to much of the current (and proliferating) critical thought about McCarthy. After an introductory biographical chapter, Jarrett addresses what he considers the two phases of McCarthy's fiction: as a regional writer of the Appalachian South, whose work mixes modernist and realistic techniques and merges contemporary fiction with the tradition of Southern literature (as in The Orchard Keeper [1965], Outer Dark [1968], Child of God [1973], and Suttree [1979]), and as a bold experimenter in form and style, with a keenly rendered postmodern esthetic (as in Blood Meridian [1985], All the Pretty Horses, and The Crossing [1994]). Jarrett regards McCarthy's early novels as attempts to write a modern fiction of the twentieth-century Tennessee hill country, comparable to what local-color realists or regionalists accomplished in the nineteenth century and to what William Faulkner accomplished in his mixture of modernism and regionalism in his Yoknapatawpha fiction. It is during his second phase, Jarrett points out, that the locales of McCarthy's novels shift to the Southwest, and any appearance they give of being popular westerns becomes only a disguise. In the final chapter Jarrett stresses three distinctive aspects of McCarthy's fiction: the diverse and idiosyncratic style of the narrative discourse, the central theme of the quest undertaken through a visionary landscape, and the role of interpolated tales. Drawing keenly on literary theory to synthesize the various strands of McCarthy's unique narrative voice, Jarrett concludes that while the author's tales -often steeped in violence - may not tell us what we want to hear, the enduring pleasure of his novels lies in their imaginative and stylistic power.


Book Synopsis Cormac McCarthy by : Robert L. Jarrett

Download or read book Cormac McCarthy written by Robert L. Jarrett and published by Macmillan Reference USA. This book was released on 1997 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this astute and learned analysis of McCarthy's fiction, Robert Jarrett looks at all seven of the novels published to date and responds to much of the current (and proliferating) critical thought about McCarthy. After an introductory biographical chapter, Jarrett addresses what he considers the two phases of McCarthy's fiction: as a regional writer of the Appalachian South, whose work mixes modernist and realistic techniques and merges contemporary fiction with the tradition of Southern literature (as in The Orchard Keeper [1965], Outer Dark [1968], Child of God [1973], and Suttree [1979]), and as a bold experimenter in form and style, with a keenly rendered postmodern esthetic (as in Blood Meridian [1985], All the Pretty Horses, and The Crossing [1994]). Jarrett regards McCarthy's early novels as attempts to write a modern fiction of the twentieth-century Tennessee hill country, comparable to what local-color realists or regionalists accomplished in the nineteenth century and to what William Faulkner accomplished in his mixture of modernism and regionalism in his Yoknapatawpha fiction. It is during his second phase, Jarrett points out, that the locales of McCarthy's novels shift to the Southwest, and any appearance they give of being popular westerns becomes only a disguise. In the final chapter Jarrett stresses three distinctive aspects of McCarthy's fiction: the diverse and idiosyncratic style of the narrative discourse, the central theme of the quest undertaken through a visionary landscape, and the role of interpolated tales. Drawing keenly on literary theory to synthesize the various strands of McCarthy's unique narrative voice, Jarrett concludes that while the author's tales -often steeped in violence - may not tell us what we want to hear, the enduring pleasure of his novels lies in their imaginative and stylistic power.


Handbook of the American Novel of the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries

Handbook of the American Novel of the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries

Author: Timo Müller

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2017-01-11

Total Pages: 512

ISBN-13: 3110422549

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Increasing specialization within the discipline of English and American Studies has shifted the focus of scholarly discussion toward theoretical reflection and cultural contexts. These developments have benefitted the discipline in more ways than one, but they have also resulted in a certain neglect of close reading. As a result, students and researchers interested in such material are forced to turn to scholarship from the 1960s and 1970s, much of which relies on dated methodological and ideological presuppositions. The handbook aims to fill this gap by providing new readings of texts that figure prominently in the literature classroom and in scholarly debate − from James’s The Ambassadors to McCarthy’s The Road. These readings do not revert naively to a time “before theory.” Instead, they distil the insights of literary and cultural theory into concise introductions to the historical background, the themes, the formal strategies, and the reception of influential literary texts, and they do so in a jargon-free language accessible to readers on all levels of qualification.


Book Synopsis Handbook of the American Novel of the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries by : Timo Müller

Download or read book Handbook of the American Novel of the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries written by Timo Müller and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2017-01-11 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Increasing specialization within the discipline of English and American Studies has shifted the focus of scholarly discussion toward theoretical reflection and cultural contexts. These developments have benefitted the discipline in more ways than one, but they have also resulted in a certain neglect of close reading. As a result, students and researchers interested in such material are forced to turn to scholarship from the 1960s and 1970s, much of which relies on dated methodological and ideological presuppositions. The handbook aims to fill this gap by providing new readings of texts that figure prominently in the literature classroom and in scholarly debate − from James’s The Ambassadors to McCarthy’s The Road. These readings do not revert naively to a time “before theory.” Instead, they distil the insights of literary and cultural theory into concise introductions to the historical background, the themes, the formal strategies, and the reception of influential literary texts, and they do so in a jargon-free language accessible to readers on all levels of qualification.


The Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Fiction, 3 Volume Set

The Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Fiction, 3 Volume Set

Author: Brian W. Shaffer

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2011-01-18

Total Pages: 1581

ISBN-13: 1405192445

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This Encyclopedia offers an indispensable reference guide to twentieth-century fiction in the English-language. With nearly 500 contributors and over one million words, it is the most comprehensive and authoritative reference guide to twentieth-century fiction in the English language. Contains over 500 entries of 1000-3000 words written in lucid, jargon-free prose, by an international cast of leading scholars Arranged in three volumes covering British and Irish Fiction, American Fiction, and World Fiction, with each volume edited by a leading scholar in the field Entries cover major writers (such as Saul Bellow, Raymond Chandler, John Steinbeck, Virginia Woolf, A.S. Byatt, Samual Beckett, D.H. Lawrence, Zadie Smith, Salman Rushdie, V.S. Naipaul, Nadine Gordimer, Alice Munro, Chinua Achebe, J.M. Coetzee, and Ngûgî Wa Thiong’o) and their key works Examines the genres and sub-genres of fiction in English across the twentieth century (including crime fiction, Sci-Fi, chick lit, the noir novel, and the avant-garde novel) as well as the major movements, debates, and rubrics within the field, such as censorship, globalization, modernist fiction, fiction and the film industry, and the fiction of migration, diaspora, and exile


Book Synopsis The Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Fiction, 3 Volume Set by : Brian W. Shaffer

Download or read book The Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Fiction, 3 Volume Set written by Brian W. Shaffer and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2011-01-18 with total page 1581 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Encyclopedia offers an indispensable reference guide to twentieth-century fiction in the English-language. With nearly 500 contributors and over one million words, it is the most comprehensive and authoritative reference guide to twentieth-century fiction in the English language. Contains over 500 entries of 1000-3000 words written in lucid, jargon-free prose, by an international cast of leading scholars Arranged in three volumes covering British and Irish Fiction, American Fiction, and World Fiction, with each volume edited by a leading scholar in the field Entries cover major writers (such as Saul Bellow, Raymond Chandler, John Steinbeck, Virginia Woolf, A.S. Byatt, Samual Beckett, D.H. Lawrence, Zadie Smith, Salman Rushdie, V.S. Naipaul, Nadine Gordimer, Alice Munro, Chinua Achebe, J.M. Coetzee, and Ngûgî Wa Thiong’o) and their key works Examines the genres and sub-genres of fiction in English across the twentieth century (including crime fiction, Sci-Fi, chick lit, the noir novel, and the avant-garde novel) as well as the major movements, debates, and rubrics within the field, such as censorship, globalization, modernist fiction, fiction and the film industry, and the fiction of migration, diaspora, and exile