James Dorson

Counternarrative Possibilities (eBook, PDF)

Virgin Land, Homeland, and Cormac McCarthy's Westerns

• Format: PDF

Produktbeschreibung

Counternarrative Possibilities reads Cormac McCarthy's Westerns against the backdrop of two formative tropes in American mythology: virgin land (from the 1950s) and homeland (after '9/11' ). Looking at McCarthy's Westerns in the context of American Studies, James Dorson shows how his novels counter the national narratives underlying these tropes and reinvest them with new, potentially transformative meaning. Departing from prevailing accounts of McCarthy that place him in relation to his literary antecedents, Counternarrative Possibilities takes a forwardlooking approach that reads McCarthy's work as a key influence on millennial fiction. Weaving together disciplinary history with longstanding debates over the relationship between aesthetics and politics, this book is at once an exploration of the limits of ideology critique in the twenty-first century and an original reconsideration of McCarthy's work 'after postmodernism'.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Campus Verlag GmbH
• Seitenzahl: 308
• Erscheinungstermin: 9. Juni 2016
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9783593433837
• Artikelnr.: 44516663

Autorenporträt

James Dorson is an assistant professor of North American Studies at the John F. Kennedy Institute of Freie Universität Berlin.

Inhaltsangabe

Contents
Acknowledgements9
Preface11
Part I: Narratives and Counternarratives
1The Power of Narrative19
Connect the Dots20
Closure and Emplotment24
Narrative, Legitimacy, Force28
Untranscendable Horizons30
2Counternarrative Possibilities38
The Historicist Origins of the Counternarrative39
Two Conceptions of Society44
The Roles of Negation49
"Complicity Battling Redemption": Counternarrative Tactics58
Negative Closure68
3American Studies and the Virgin Land Myth74
Indian-Hating and the Logic of Fetishism75
The Myth and Symbol School's "Doctrine of Doubleness"87
American Unexceptionalism: Violation and Revisionism93
"The Entire Planet as a Unit of Analysis": Postnationalism and the New Americanists100
4American Studies and the Homeland Myth108
The National 'Wound'109
The Rhetoric of Rupture118
The Eternal Homecoming126
Metanostalgia134
Part II:Cormac McCarthy's Westerns Strings and Mazes: Introducing Cormac McCarthy141
5Blood Meridian and the Misrule of Law151
Violence, Law, Westerns153
The Primordial Crime161
Judge Holden's Economy of Justice167
The Horror of the Real173
6Aesthetic Coldness177
"Things Are Seldom What They Seem": Blood Meridian's Anti-Realism178
Into the Grand Hotel Abyss182
The Violence of Form185
The Monster of Reason189
7Blood Meridian's Dangerous Absolutes193
The Historical Absolute194
The Desert Absolute198
Absolute Instability202
Mutual Accountability207
8Saving Romance from 'America' in the Border Trilogy210
"Another World Entire": The Americanization of Romance211
Reading the Border Trilogy through American Studies219
Radical Longing and Fugitive Time227
"Ten Thousand Worlds for the Choosing"232
9From Pastiche to Tragedy238
Suffering Beyond Pastiche: Genre and Post-Postmodernism240
Mourning the Sublime250
"That Which Is and Must Be": The Punishment of John Grady Cole and Billy Parham252
The Deconsecration of Capital261
Conclusion: Perilous Ground267
Between Loss and Longing271
Perilous Ground281
Bibliography284
Index302
Contents

Acknowledgements9

Preface11

Part I: Narratives and Counternarratives

1The Power of Narrative19

Connect the Dots20

Closure and Emplotment24

Narrative, Legitimacy, Force28

Untranscendable Horizons30

2Counternarrative Possibilities38

The Historicist Origins of the Counternarrative39

Two Conceptions of Society44

The Roles of Negation49

"Complicity Battling Redemption": Counternarrative Tactics58

Negative Closure68

3American Studies and the Virgin Land Myth74

Indian-Hating and the Logic of Fetishism75

The Myth and Symbol School's "Doctrine of Doubleness"87

American Unexceptionalism: Violation and Revisionism93

"The Entire Planet as a Unit of Analysis": Postnationalism and the New Americanists100

4American Studies and the Homeland Myth108

The National 'Wound'109

The Rhetoric of Rupture118

The Eternal Homecoming126

Metanostalgia134

Part II:Cormac McCarthy's Westerns Strings and Mazes: Introducing Cormac McCarthy141

5Blood Meridian and the Misrule of Law151

Violence, Law, Westerns153

The Primordial Crime161

Judge Holden's Economy of Justice167

The Horror of the Real173

6Aesthetic Coldness177

"Things Are Seldom What They Seem": Blood Meridian's Anti-Realism178

Into the Grand Hotel Abyss182

The Violence of Form185

The Monster of Reason189
7Blood Meridian's Dangerous Absolutes193

The Historical Absolute194

The Desert Absolute198

Absolute Instability202

Mutual Accountability207

8Saving Romance from 'America' in the Border Trilogy210

"Another World Entire": The Americanization of Romance211

Reading the Border Trilogy through American Studies219

Radical Longing and Fugitive Time227

"Ten Thousand Worlds for the Choosing"232

9From Pastiche to Tragedy238

Suffering Beyond Pastiche: Genre and Post-Postmodernism240

Mourning the Sublime250

"That Which Is and Must Be": The Punishment of John Grady Cole and Billy Parham252

The Deconsecration of Capital261

Conclusion: Perilous Ground267

Between Loss and Longing271

Perilous Ground281

Bibliography284

Index302

Rezensionen

"Dorson provides an eloquent encapsulation of scholarly approaches regarding the affirmation and subversion of romantic narratives in the novels. And throughout he offers wonderful connections to Herman Melville and James Joyce." E. Hage, SUNY Cobleskill, Choice, 01.04.2017»Dorson provides an eloquent encapsulation of scholarly approaches regarding the affirmation and subversion of romantic narratives in the novels. And throughout he offers wonderful connections to Herman Melville and James Joyce.« E. Hage, SUNY Cobleskill, Choice, 01.04.2017 »In its entirety, James Dorson's Counternarrative Possibilities develops two absorbing argumentative strands: An extremely informed and informative examination of the politics of criticism as well as the criticism of politics that have shaped American Studies since the second half of the twentieth century; and a well-argued re-examination of McCarthy's western novels in light of recent political and cultural developments in the United States.« Jan D. Kucharzewski, Amerikastudien/America Studies, 64.3 (2019)