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Edith Wharton and Cosmopolitanism , ed. by Meredith L. Goldsmith and Emily J. Orlando (review)

Edith Wharton and Cosmopolitanism , ed. by Meredith L. Goldsmith and Emily J. Orlando (review) Reviews the manner in which the Border Trilogy invites identification, sympathy, and pathos that in many ways makes the reader a participant in stories that in the end resist the kind of closure offered by the national narrative. Counternarrative Possibilities: Virgin Land, Homeland, and Cormac McCarthy’s Westerns thus offers a detailed and highly nuanced analysis of what amounts to the political implications of McCarthy’s Western novels. While many analyses debate the tension between revisionist and conservative leanings, Dorson demonstrates how a complex revisionism is accomplished through narrative and even aesthetic means. Implicit here is the intricate manner in which theme and form are intimately co-implicated. In this sense, in writing novels about the mythic West, a measured and even structured ambiguity preserves the ideas of complexity and mystery so central to McCarthy’s vision. Dorson provides a highly original and distinctive look into the process by which McCarthy engages American history and cultural perception. Steven Frye is Professor of American literature and Chair of the English Department at California State University, Bakersfield. He is the president of the Cormac McCarthy Society and author of Understanding Cormac McCarthy and Understanding Larry McMurtry, as well as editor of The Cambridge Companion http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Studies in American Naturalism University of Nebraska Press

Edith Wharton and Cosmopolitanism , ed. by Meredith L. Goldsmith and Emily J. Orlando (review)

Liming, Sheila
Studies in American Naturalism , Volume 11 (2) – Aug 29, 2016
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Publisher
University of Nebraska Press
Copyright
Copyright © University of Nebraska Press
ISSN
1944-6519
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Abstract

Reviews the manner in which the Border Trilogy invites identification, sympathy, and pathos that in many ways makes the reader a participant in stories that in the end resist the kind of closure offered by the national narrative. Counternarrative Possibilities: Virgin Land, Homeland, and Cormac McCarthy’s Westerns thus offers a detailed and highly nuanced analysis of what amounts to the political implications of McCarthy’s Western novels. While many analyses debate the tension between revisionist and conservative leanings, Dorson demonstrates how a complex revisionism is accomplished through narrative and even aesthetic means. Implicit here is the intricate manner in which theme and form are intimately co-implicated. In this sense, in writing novels about the mythic West, a measured and even structured ambiguity preserves the ideas of complexity and mystery so central to McCarthy’s vision. Dorson provides a highly original and distinctive look into the process by which McCarthy engages American history and cultural perception. Steven Frye is Professor of American literature and Chair of the English Department at California State University, Bakersfield. He is the president of the Cormac McCarthy Society and author of Understanding Cormac McCarthy and Understanding Larry McMurtry, as well as editor of The Cambridge Companion

Journal

Studies in American Naturalism – University of Nebraska Press

Published: Aug 29, 2016

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