DownloadThe Portobello Bookshop Gift Guide 2024

Morality in Cormac McCarthy's Fiction

Souls at Hazard

Russell M Hillier author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Springer International Publishing AG

Published:3rd May '18

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Morality in Cormac McCarthy's Fiction cover

This book argues that McCarthy’s works convey a profound moral vision, and use intertextuality, moral philosophy, and questions of genre to advance that vision. It focuses upon the ways in which McCarthy’s fiction is in ceaseless conversation with literary and philosophical tradition, examining McCarthy’s investment in influential thinkers from Marcus Aurelius to Hannah Arendt, and poets, playwrights, and novelists from Dante and Shakespeare to Fyodor Dostoevsky and Antonio Machado. The book shows how McCarthy’s fiction grapples with abiding moral and metaphysical issues: the nature and problem of evil; the idea of God or the transcendent; the credibility of heroism in the modern age; the question of moral choice and action; the possibility of faith, hope, love, and goodness; the meaning and limits of civilization; and the definition of what it is to be human. This study will appeal alike to readers, teachers, and scholars of Cormac McCarthy.  

“Hillier focuses on examining one aspect of McCarthy’s moral vision in each chapter, the result of which is a book that is well organized around this central theme. Hillier includes quotations from McCarthy’s novels in his chapter titles, each of which fittingly summarizes the moral concerns in the narratives. His scholarship, which is rooted in the Western literary and intellectual tradition, in combination with his nuanced textual readings and his unearthing of frequently overlooked textual clues makes his argument insightful and compelling.” (Aihua Chen, Soundings, Vol. 101 (04), 2018)

“This book reads easily, as it should, and is therefore recommended not only to graduate students and scholars but to advanced undergraduates. … The overall structure of each chapter, and how the chapters produce the larger argument, generally present yet another admirable quality of this book.” (Jay Ellis, The Cormac McCarthy Journal, Vol. 16 (2), 2018)

ISBN: 9783319836270

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 454g

317 pages

Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 2017