Religion in Cormac McCarthy's Fiction Apocryphal Borderlands [Paperback]

This book addresses the religious scope of Cormac McCarthys 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. McCarthys 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 Meridianfunctions as the Book of Genesis, the Border Trilogyfunctions as the Gospels, and No Country for Old Menas the Book of Revelation, while The Roadis the post-apocalyptic sequel. This book analyzes the novels included in what Broncano defines as the South-Western cycle (from Blood Meridianto The Road) in search of the religious foundations that support the narrative architecture of the texts.

Foreword, Rick Wallach  Introduction. Cormac McCarthys Religious Enigma  1. The World as a Tale: Preliminary Considerations in Theory  2. Genesis of a Cursed Territory: Blood Meridian  3. Cicatrices and Wounds on the Skin of History: All the Pretty Horses  4. Of Knights and Wolves and Witnesses: The Crossing  5. The Virgin, the Whore, the Pimp, and the Monk: Cities of the Plain  6. The Devils Territory Revisited: No Country for Old Men  7. Grocery SholÓ'