Journal article
Reading Allegory and Nature in Cormac McCarthy’s The Road: Towards a Non-Anthropocentric Vision of the Language of Nature
Arcadia, Vol.49(1), pp.89-102
2014
Abstract
This ecocritical reading of nature images in Cormac McCarthy's The Road draws on Walter Benjamin's conception of allegory and interprets the novel's vision of nature as an allegory about a finite material reality that is subordinated to a vast cyclic cosmic order. Allegories are central for interpreting both nature and the mother figure in The Road, and their importance is underlined by repeated allusions to Plato's Allegory of the Cave. However, close textual analysis of specific passages reveals allusions to the movement of the stars and of the earth; such allusions indicate a suppressed and non-anthropocentric vision of the earth and its long cycles. This opens possibilities for interdisciplinary appreciation of the novel's enigmatic ending.
Details
- Title
- Reading Allegory and Nature in Cormac McCarthy’s The Road: Towards a Non-Anthropocentric Vision of the Language of Nature
- Authors
- Gabriella Blasi (Author) - University of Queensland
- Publication details
- Arcadia, Vol.49(1), pp.89-102
- Publisher
- Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG
- Date published
- 2014
- DOI
- 10.1515/arca-2014-0006
- ISSN
- 0003-7982
- Copyright note
- Copyright © 2014 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG. The published version is reproduced here in accordance with the publisher's copyright policy.
- Organisation Unit
- University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99451091702621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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