Book Description
Through close examination of the formal as well as thematic organization of Cormac McCarthy's eight novels, this volume offers a radically new assessment of the work of an author who has often been described as one of the greatest contemporary American novelists. In opposition to existing McCarthy scholarship--which tends to concentrate on the regional dimensions of his work, viewing it within the literary and mythopoetic traditions of the South and Southwest--Holloway argues that McCarthy's full significance can only be understood if his work is contextualized within the broader political, economic, and intellectual discourses of the period in which his novels have been produced. Drawing on the ideas of Marxist thinkers such as Fredric Jameson, George Lukacs, and Jean-Paul Sartre, he shows how McCarthy's late modernism resists many of the postmodern assumptions about literary narrative that have come to shape our understanding of aesthetics in recent times.
About the Author
DAVID HOLLOWAY is Lecturer in American Studies at the University of Derby, England. He has published scholarly articles and book chapters on 20th-century American literature and popular culture.
The Late Modernism of Cormac McCarthy FROM THE PUBLISHER
Through close examination of the formal as well as thematic organization of Cormac McCarthy's eight novels, this volume offers a radically new assessment of the work of an author who has often been described as one of the greatest contemporary American novelists. In opposition to existing McCarthy scholarship--which tends to concentrate on the regional dimensions of his work, viewing it within the literary and mythopoetic traditions of the South and Southwest--Holloway argues that McCarthy's full significance can only be understood if his work is contextualized within the broader political, economic, and intellectual discourses of the period in which his novels have been produced. Drawing on the ideas of Marxist thinkers such as Fredric Jameson, George Lukacs, and Jean-Paul Sartre, he shows how McCarthy's late modernism resists many of the postmodern assumptions about literary narrative that have come to shape our understanding of aesthetics in recent times.
SYNOPSIS
Offers a new interpretation of Cormac McCarthy's fiction in the context of modernist aesthetics.
FROM THE CRITICS
Booknews
Holloway (American Studies, U. of Derby, UK) employs the tools of contemporary theorists, particularly Fredric Jameson and his notion of transcoding, in this analysis of the writer and playwright. Among other issues, Holloway discusses the importance of class and capitalism for the theme of existential alienation experienced by McCarthy's characters. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)