The Comparative Study of Post-Apocalyptic Atmosphere in the Novel The Road by Cormac McCarthy and the Myths of the Holy Grail and the Fisher King
Subject Areas : Mytho
1 - The Assistant Professor of English Language, Khatam University
Keywords: Myth, Post-Apocalyptic, Cormac McCarthy, The Holy Grail, The Fisher King,
Abstract :
Cormac McCarthy's The Road, with its ashen, post-apocalyptic landscape, seems a conspicuous exodus from the realism of his earlier novels. Its horrendous atmosphere frustrates the readers and forces them to ask: what really has happened to the world? And is there any kind of salvation for modern man after the horrific post-apocalyptic era? In this novel McCarthy portrays some events which he thinks they are the impossible fate of human beings. He narrates a journey of a father and a son who try to survive after the civilization has been wiped off the face of the earth. The present study has analytic-comparative approach and its main objective is to prove that there is a close relationship between the postmodern novel of The Road and ancient myths of The Holy Grail and The Fisher King. In this research the emphasis is not on the characteristics of The Road as a postmodern novel, but on the myths which are older and more significant. In the post-apocalyptic world which everything is ruined, the only remedy of human being is seeking transcendentalism through myths. The world created upon individual benefit and expediency is doomed. The result of this research reveals that the only salvation for man is to build new moral principles regardless of individual benefit. In fact, the antidote which can cure this melancholic world is nothing but to have mercy upon others; in other words, for survival we need to have compassion and love for others without any condition or calculation.
عهد جدید
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English Sources
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English Sources
Baudrillard, Jean. (2002). The Spirit of Terrorism and Requiem for the Twin Towers, Trans, Chris Turn, London: Verso.
Campbell, Joseph. (1990). Transformations of Myth through Time, New York: Harper & Row.
Cooper, L.R. (2011). Cormac McCarthy’s The Road as Apocalyptic Grail Narrative. Studies in the Novel, 43.2: 218-236.
Grindley, Carl James. (2008). “The Setting of McCarthy’s The Road”, Explicator, 67.1: 11-13.
Grossman, Lev. (2007). “A Conversation between Cormac McCarthy and Joel and Ethan Coen”, Time, 29 Oct.: 62-63.
Hendry, Tom. (2015). “Myth, Legend and Dust: Cormac McCarthy and the Loss of Vernacular”. Dandelion Postgraduate & Research Network. Vol. 5, No. 2.
Hunt, Alex and Martin M. Jacobsen. (2008). “Cormac McCarthy’s The Road and Plato’s Simile of the Sun”, Explicator, 66.3: 155-58.
King James Bible. (n.d.). King James Bible Online. New Testement. https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/ .(Original work published 176).
Kushner, David. (2007). “Cormac McCarthy’s Apocalypse”, Rolling Stone, 27 Dec. Online. 21 Feb 2011. http://www.davidkushner.com/article/cormac-mccarthys-apocalypse/
Loomis, Roger Sherman. (1963). The Grail: From Celtic Myth to Christian Symbol, New York: Columbia University Press.
Luce, Dianne C. (2008). “Beyond the Border: Cormac McCarthy in the New Millenium”, Cormac McCarthy Journal, 6: 6-12.
Marino, John B. (2004). The Grail Legend in Modern Literature. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer.
McCarthy, Cormac. (2007). The Road, New York: Picador.
Spurgeon, Sara L. (2011). CORMAC McCARTHY: All the Pretty Horses, No Country for Old Men, The Road. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group.
Tennyson, Alfred. (1920). Tennyson’s Idylls of the King, Intro, by Willis H. Wilcox, Philadelphia: J.B Lippincott.
Waite, Arthur Edward. (1961). The Holy Grail: The Galahad Quest in the Arthurian Literature, New York: University Books.
Weston, Jessie L. (1964). The Quest of the Holy Grail, London: Frank Cass & Co.
Wood, Juliett. (2000). “The Holy Grail: From Romance Motif to Modern Genre”, Folklore, Taylor & Francis Ltd., 111.2: 169-190.
Žižek, Slavoj. (2002). Welcome to the Desert of the Real. New York: Wooster P
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