The Cambridge Companion to Cormac McCarthy

This book provides a sophisticated introduction to the life and work of Cormac McCarthy appropriate for scholars, teachers and general readers.

Steven Frye (Edited by)

9781107018150, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 22 April 2013

230 pages, 5 b/w illus.
23.5 x 15.6 x 1.7 cm, 0.44 kg

'The collection works best when moving beyond the generalities of genre to the specificities of history and the singularities of style.' The Times Literary Supplement

Cormac McCarthy both embodies and redefines the notion of the artist as outsider. His fiction draws on recognizable American themes and employs dense philosophical and theological subtexts, challenging readers by depicting the familiar as inscrutably foreign. The essays in this Companion offer a sophisticated yet concise introduction to McCarthy's difficult and provocative work. The contributors, an international team of McCarthy scholars, analyze some of the most well-known and commonly taught novels - Outer Dark, Blood Meridian, All the Pretty Horses and The Road - while providing detailed treatments of McCarthy's work in cinema, including the many adaptations of his novels to film. Designed for scholars, teachers and general readers, and complete with a chronology and bibliography for further reading, this Companion is an essential reference for anyone interested in gaining a deeper understanding of one of America's most celebrated living novelists.

List of contributors
Acknowledgments
Chronology of McCarthy's life and works
1. Introduction: histories, novels, ideas: McCarthy and the art of philosophy Steven Frye
Part I. Influence and Innovation: 2. McCarthy's heroes and the will to truth Linda Woodson
3. Modernism, postmodernism, and language: McCarthy's style Phillip A. Snyder and Delys W. Snyder
Part II. Beginnings in the American South: 4. McCarthy, Tennessee, and the southern gothic Lydia R. Cooper
5. McCarthy and the uses of philosophy in the Tennessee novels Brian Evenson
Part III. The Move Westward: 6. History and the problem of evil in McCarthy's western novels Timothy Parrish
7. The Border Trilogy, The Road, and the Cold War Pierre Lagayette
Part IV. The Novels: 8. Outer Dark and romantic naturalism James R. Giles
9. Blood Meridian and the poetics of violence Steven Frye
10. All the Pretty Horses, the border, and ethnic encounter Nicholas Monk
11. The quest for God in The Road Allen Josephs
Part V. Themes and Issues: 12. McCarthy and naturalism Eric Carl Link
13. McCarthy and film Stacey Peebles
14. McCarthy's heroes: revisiting masculinity John Dudley
Selected bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers [DSK], Literary studies: from c 1900 - [DSBH]