Violent histories: J.M. Coetzee's dusklands and Cormac McCarthy's 'blood meridian'
| dc.contributor.author | Powers, Donald | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2018-01-22T11:09:01Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2018-01-22T11:09:01Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2013 | |
| dc.date.updated | 2016-01-12T12:41:19Z | |
| dc.description.abstract | This paper explores the resonance between Coetzee’s first novel Dusklands and McCarthy’s fifth novel Blood Meridian through a discussion of how scenes of violence are represented and rationalised in these two texts. Where Coetzee is impatient of realism and preoccupied with history as a discourse, McCarthy’s narrative seems photorealistic in its evocation of the real, but this effect is destabilised by stylised formal features and the trickster figure of Judge Holden. It is shown that in Coetzee’s egocentric protagonists the desire for detached power over others is expressed in the fantasy of an unchallenged gaze that conveys a broader anxiety about authorship and the writing of history, while in McCarthy’s text the narrator’s contextualisation of the characters’ violence against a harsh and indifferent desert environment limits psychological insight and underscores the impernanence of any historical record. Holden and Jacobus Coetzee, finally, are shown to be akin in enabling the metafictional reflections of these two novels. | |
| dc.identifier | http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17533171.2012.760833 | |
| dc.identifier.apacitation | Powers, D. (2013). Violent histories: J.M. Coetzee's dusklands and Cormac McCarthy's 'blood meridian'. <i>Safundi : journal of South African and American studies</i>, http://hdl.handle.net/11427/26857 | en_ZA |
| dc.identifier.chicagocitation | Powers, Donald "Violent histories: J.M. Coetzee's dusklands and Cormac McCarthy's 'blood meridian'." <i>Safundi : journal of South African and American studies</i> (2013) http://hdl.handle.net/11427/26857 | en_ZA |
| dc.identifier.citation | Powers, D. (2013). Violent Histories: JM Coetzee’s Dusklands and Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian. Safundi, 14(1), 59-76. | |
| dc.identifier.ris | TY - Journal Article AU - Powers, Donald AB - This paper explores the resonance between Coetzee’s first novel Dusklands and McCarthy’s fifth novel Blood Meridian through a discussion of how scenes of violence are represented and rationalised in these two texts. Where Coetzee is impatient of realism and preoccupied with history as a discourse, McCarthy’s narrative seems photorealistic in its evocation of the real, but this effect is destabilised by stylised formal features and the trickster figure of Judge Holden. It is shown that in Coetzee’s egocentric protagonists the desire for detached power over others is expressed in the fantasy of an unchallenged gaze that conveys a broader anxiety about authorship and the writing of history, while in McCarthy’s text the narrator’s contextualisation of the characters’ violence against a harsh and indifferent desert environment limits psychological insight and underscores the impernanence of any historical record. Holden and Jacobus Coetzee, finally, are shown to be akin in enabling the metafictional reflections of these two novels. DA - 2013 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town J1 - Safundi : journal of South African and American studies LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 2013 T1 - Violent histories: J.M. Coetzee's dusklands and Cormac McCarthy's 'blood meridian' TI - Violent histories: J.M. Coetzee's dusklands and Cormac McCarthy's 'blood meridian' UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/26857 ER - | en_ZA |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/26857 | |
| dc.identifier.vancouvercitation | Powers D. Violent histories: J.M. Coetzee's dusklands and Cormac McCarthy's 'blood meridian'. Safundi : journal of South African and American studies. 2013; http://hdl.handle.net/11427/26857. | en_ZA |
| dc.language.iso | eng | |
| dc.publisher.department | Department of English Language and Literature | en_ZA |
| dc.publisher.faculty | Faculty of Humanities | en_ZA |
| dc.publisher.institution | University of Cape Town | |
| dc.source | Safundi : journal of South African and American studies | |
| dc.source.uri | http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rsaf20 | |
| dc.title | Violent histories: J.M. Coetzee's dusklands and Cormac McCarthy's 'blood meridian' | |
| dc.type | Journal Article | |
| uct.type.filetype | Text | |
| uct.type.filetype | Image |