Inverting the ‘Gracelorn’ Father: Augustinian Notions of Evil and Goodness in Cormac McCarthy’s Outer Dark and The Road

Cormac McCarthy’s novels Outer Dark (1968) and The Road (2006) project different visions of fatherhood, yet both focus on men who travel dark, unnamed roads as they grapple with their responsibility to their children. The relation between the two novels indicates the possibility that fatherhood is t...

Полное описание

Сохранить в:  
Библиографические подробности
Опубликовано в: :Literature and theology
Главный автор: Griffis, Rachel B. (Автор)
Формат: Электронный ресурс Статья
Язык:Английский
Проверить наличие: HBZ Gateway
Journals Online & Print:
Загрузка...
Fernleihe:Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste
Опубликовано: Oxford University Press 2022
В: Literature and theology
Индексация IxTheo:CD Христианство и культура
KAB Раннее христианство
KAJ Новейшее время
NCB Индивидуальная этика
Online-ссылка: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Описание
Итог:Cormac McCarthy’s novels Outer Dark (1968) and The Road (2006) project different visions of fatherhood, yet both focus on men who travel dark, unnamed roads as they grapple with their responsibility to their children. The relation between the two novels indicates the possibility that fatherhood is the primary vehicle through which McCarthy explores good and evil. By drawing on Saint Augustine’s privative theory, this article suggests that evil in Outer Dark signifies an absence or perversion of virtue while The Road presents goodness as active submission to a moral authority. Reading the two novels together consequently affirms Augustine’s suggestion that ‘in vice there lurks a counterfeit beauty’. The portrayal of fatherhood in The Road elucidates the ‘counterfeit beauty’ of Outer Dark, which extends and deepens the theological dimensions of both works.
ISSN:1477-4623
Второстепенные работы:Enthalten in: Literature and theology
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1093/litthe/frac001