Cormac McCarthy

Markus Wierschem studied and taught at the Paderborn University, Germany, and St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. His focus has been in English and American literary and cultural studies, as well as philosophy and the didactics and teaching of English as a foreign language. He is coeditor of Patterns of Dis|Order: Beiträge zur Kulturgeschichte der Un|Ordnung and Cormac McCarthy between Worlds.

Elegantly written, circumspect, and capacious in its research of all the regions of thought that McCarthy's fiction engages, this book is a marvel of perspicuous interpretation. Every aspect, stylistic and cognitive, of the novelist's astonishing work is deeply and deftly explored here; it will remain an indispensable reference, indeed a treasure trove, for McCarthy enthusiasts. —Andrew J. McKenna is professor emeritus in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at Loyola University Chicago

• Contents Acknowledgments Abbreviations Introduction. An American Apocalypse? Chapter 1. Sanguinary Signifiers: The Dis|Orderly Language of Myth, Violence, and Entropy Chapter 2. Dissolved in a Pale and Broken Image: Pastoralism, Mimesis, and Dis|Order in The Orchard Keeper Chapter 3. Order in the Woods and in Men’s Souls: Gothic Psychomythology and Scapegoating in Child of God Chapter 4. A Sense of Judgment: Myth, Christianity, and Cosmic Disorder in Outer Dark Chapter 5. Degeneration through Violence: The Apocalyptic Logic of Blood Meridian Chapter 6. An Apocalyptic Journey: Revelation, Conversion, and the Different Ends of The Road Conclusion. At the Crossroads of Life and Death Notes Bibliography Index