Title: What else can nature mean : an ecocritical perspective on Cormac McCarthy's fiction
Source document: Theory and Practice in English Studies. 2019, vol. 8, iss. 2, pp. [43]-60
Extent
[43]-60
-
ISSN1805-0859
Stable URL (handle): https://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/141864
Type: Article
Language
License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International
Notice: These citations are automatically created and might not follow citation rules properly.
Abstract(s)
Cormac McCarthy's natural imagery has always attracted critical attention as a significant aspect of his fiction, since the mere volume of natural descriptions indicates their importance in the texts. However, McCarthy's nature was broadly perceived as symbolic, or as a setting device embedding the works in the the environments of Tennessee and the West. McCarthy's natural imagery was first thoroughly studied by Georg Guillemin and Dianne C. Luce in their monographs The Pastoral Vision of Cormac McCarthy (2004) and Reading the World: Cormac McCarthy's Tennessee Period (2009). Since then, other critics such as Andrew Keller Estes have explored various aspects of McCarthy's natural imagery and the relationship between the human and non-human world and contributed to discussion on McCarthy's natural environment and its functions in the texts. Following ecocritical theoretical framework of Lawrence Buell who suggests understanding nature and culture as inseparable domains with mutual influence instead of seeing them as isolated counterparts, this paper argues that reading McCarthy's novels with environmental awareness significantly alters their interpretation. The analysis of McCarthy's method of describing the natural environment and processes demonstrates that McCarthy's nature should not be interpreted as a purely aesthetic object, but rather as a means towards the revision of American history, and that his critical stance towards anthropocentrism reveals the ethical orientation of his fiction.
References
[1] Buell, Lawrence. 1995. The Environmental Imagination: Thoreau, Nature Writing, and the Formation of American Culture. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
[2] Buell, Lawrence. 2005. The Future of Environmental Criticism. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
[3] Cant, John. 2008. Cormac McCarthy and the Myth of American Exceptionalism. London: Routledge.
[4] Estes, Andrew Keller. 2013. Cormac McCarthy and the Writing of American Spaces. Leiden: Rodopi.
[5] Glotfelty, Cheryll. 1996. "Introduction: Literary Studies in an Age of Environmental Crisis." In The Ecocritism Reader: Landmarks in Literary Ecology, edited by Cheryll Glotfelty and Harold Fromm, xv–xxxvii. Athens: The University of Georgia Press.
[6] Guillemin, Georg. 2004. The Pastoral Vision of Cormac McCarthy. College Station: A & M University Press.
[7] Hodge, Roger D. 2006. "Blood and Time: Cormac McCarthy and the Twilight of the West." Harper's Magazine, February 2006.
[8] Luce, Dianne C. 2009. Reading the World: Cormac McCarthy's Tennessee Period. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press.
[9] Luce, Dianne C. 2017. "Landscapes as Narrative Commentary in Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian or the Evening Redness in the West." European Journal of American Studies [Online] 12, no. 3, https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/12259.
[10] McCarthy, Cormac. 2010a. The Orchard Keeper. London: Picador.
[11] McCarthy, Cormac. 2010b. Outer Dark. London: Picador.
[12] McCarthy, Cormac. 2010c. Blood Meridian or The Evening Redness in the West. London: Picador.
[13] McCarthy, Cormac. 2010d. All the Pretty Horses. London: Picador.
[14] McCarthy, Cormac. 2010e. The Crossing. London: Picador,
[15] Morton, Timothy. 2007. Ecology without Nature: Rethinking Environmental Aesthetics. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
[16] Nash, Roderick. 1979. Wilderness and the American Mind. Revised edition. New Heaven: Yale University Press.
[17] Peebles, Stacey. 2017. Cormac McCarthy and Performance: Page, Stage, Screen. Austin: University of Texas Press.
[18] Rueckert, William. 1996. "Literature and Ecology: An Experiment in Ecocriticism." In The Ecocritism Reader: Landmarks in Literary Ecology, edited by Cheryll Glotfelty and Harold Fromm, 105–123. Athens: The University of Georgia Press.
[19] Sanborn, Wallis R. 2006. Animals in the Fiction of Cormac McCarthy. Jefferson NC: McFarland & Company, Inc.
[20] Sepich, John. 2008. Notes on Blood Meridian. Revised and extended edition. Austin: University of Texas Press.
[21] Spurgeon, Sara L. 2009. "Foundation of Empire: The Sacred Hunter and the Eucharist of the Wilderness in Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian." In Cormac McCarthy, edited by Harold Bloom, 85–106. New York City: Infobase Publishing.
[22] White, Richard. 1991a. "It's Your Misfortune and None of My Own": A History of the American West. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
[23] White, Richard. 1991b. "Trashing the Trails." In Trails: Toward a New Western History, edited by Patricia Nelson Limerick, Clyde A. Milner II and Charles E. Rankin, 26–39. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas.
[24] Worster, David. 1991. "Beyond the Agrarian Myth." In Trails: Toward a New Western History, edited by Patricia Nelson Limerick, Clyde A. Milner II and Charles E. Rankin, 3–25. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas.
[2] Buell, Lawrence. 2005. The Future of Environmental Criticism. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
[3] Cant, John. 2008. Cormac McCarthy and the Myth of American Exceptionalism. London: Routledge.
[4] Estes, Andrew Keller. 2013. Cormac McCarthy and the Writing of American Spaces. Leiden: Rodopi.
[5] Glotfelty, Cheryll. 1996. "Introduction: Literary Studies in an Age of Environmental Crisis." In The Ecocritism Reader: Landmarks in Literary Ecology, edited by Cheryll Glotfelty and Harold Fromm, xv–xxxvii. Athens: The University of Georgia Press.
[6] Guillemin, Georg. 2004. The Pastoral Vision of Cormac McCarthy. College Station: A & M University Press.
[7] Hodge, Roger D. 2006. "Blood and Time: Cormac McCarthy and the Twilight of the West." Harper's Magazine, February 2006.
[8] Luce, Dianne C. 2009. Reading the World: Cormac McCarthy's Tennessee Period. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press.
[9] Luce, Dianne C. 2017. "Landscapes as Narrative Commentary in Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian or the Evening Redness in the West." European Journal of American Studies [Online] 12, no. 3, https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/12259.
[10] McCarthy, Cormac. 2010a. The Orchard Keeper. London: Picador.
[11] McCarthy, Cormac. 2010b. Outer Dark. London: Picador.
[12] McCarthy, Cormac. 2010c. Blood Meridian or The Evening Redness in the West. London: Picador.
[13] McCarthy, Cormac. 2010d. All the Pretty Horses. London: Picador.
[14] McCarthy, Cormac. 2010e. The Crossing. London: Picador,
[15] Morton, Timothy. 2007. Ecology without Nature: Rethinking Environmental Aesthetics. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
[16] Nash, Roderick. 1979. Wilderness and the American Mind. Revised edition. New Heaven: Yale University Press.
[17] Peebles, Stacey. 2017. Cormac McCarthy and Performance: Page, Stage, Screen. Austin: University of Texas Press.
[18] Rueckert, William. 1996. "Literature and Ecology: An Experiment in Ecocriticism." In The Ecocritism Reader: Landmarks in Literary Ecology, edited by Cheryll Glotfelty and Harold Fromm, 105–123. Athens: The University of Georgia Press.
[19] Sanborn, Wallis R. 2006. Animals in the Fiction of Cormac McCarthy. Jefferson NC: McFarland & Company, Inc.
[20] Sepich, John. 2008. Notes on Blood Meridian. Revised and extended edition. Austin: University of Texas Press.
[21] Spurgeon, Sara L. 2009. "Foundation of Empire: The Sacred Hunter and the Eucharist of the Wilderness in Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian." In Cormac McCarthy, edited by Harold Bloom, 85–106. New York City: Infobase Publishing.
[22] White, Richard. 1991a. "It's Your Misfortune and None of My Own": A History of the American West. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
[23] White, Richard. 1991b. "Trashing the Trails." In Trails: Toward a New Western History, edited by Patricia Nelson Limerick, Clyde A. Milner II and Charles E. Rankin, 26–39. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas.
[24] Worster, David. 1991. "Beyond the Agrarian Myth." In Trails: Toward a New Western History, edited by Patricia Nelson Limerick, Clyde A. Milner II and Charles E. Rankin, 3–25. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas.