Cormac McCarthy in Context

Cormac McCarthy in Context places the author's work within a host of influences that serve to illuminate his dense work.

Steven Frye (Edited by)

9781108488839, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 2 January 2020

418 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.6 cm, 0.72 kg

'This wide-ranging volume is a fitting response to McCarthy's corpus. And, like McCarthy's own works, it will provoke substantive discussions across a remarkable array of academic disciplines.' J. Bilbro, Choice

Cormac McCarthy is a writer informed by an intense curiosity. His interests range from the natural world, to philosophy and religion, to history and culture. Cormac McCarthy in Context offers readers the opportunity to understand how various influences inform his rich body of work. The collection explores the relationship McCarthy has with his favourite authors, writers such as Herman Melville, William Faulkner, and Ernest Hemingway. Other contexts are tremendously informative, including the American Romance tradition of the nineteenth century as well as modernity and the modernist literary movement. Influence and context are of absolute importance in understanding McCarthy, who is now being understood as one of the most significant authors of the contemporary period.

Part I. Environments: 1. Life and career Steven Frye
2. The South Scott Yarbrough
3. The Southwest Lydia Cooper
4. The Santa Fe Institute Ciaran Dowd
Part II. Literary Contexts: Sources, Influences, Allusions: 5. William Faulkner Jay Watson
6. Ernest Hemingway Olivia Carr Edenfield
7. Herman Melville and the American Romance tradition G. R. Thompson
8. Romanticism Dustin Anderson
9. Naturalism Adam H. Wood
10. The Bible Alan Noble
11. Allusion and allegory Bill Hardwig
Part III. Intellectual Contexts: 12. The Judeo-Christian tradition James Dorson
13. Gnosticism Benjamin West
14. Classical and pre-classical philosophy David Williams
15. Nineteenth and twentieth-century philosophy Julius Greve
16. Formal aesthetic choices Bryan Vescio
17. Science and technology Jay Ellis
Part IV. Social and Cultural Contexts: 18. American politics David Holloway
19. Race and cultural difference John Dudley
20. Ecology Susan Kollin
21. Modernity Nicholas Monk
22. A visual artist on McCarthy Peter Josyph
23. Cinematic adaptations Lee Clark Mitchell
24. Cinematic influences Petra Mundik
Part V. Archives, Critical History, Translation: 25. The archives and the Tennessee years, I: The Orchard Keeper and Outer Dark Dianne C. Luce
26. The archives and the Tennessee years, II: Child of God, The Gardener's Son, and Suttree Dianne C. Luce
27. The San Marcos archives: Blood Meridian and the West Michael Lynn Crews
28. Letters and correspondence Katie Salzmann
29. Critical history Stacey Peebles
30. Translation and international reception, I Beatrice Trotignon
31. Translation and international reception, II Beatrice Trotignon.

Subject Areas: Literary reference works [DSR], Literary studies: from c 1900 - [DSBH], Literary studies: general [DSB]