Medieval Dream Vision In The Road

After the application of medieval dream vision in The Border Trilogy, Cormac McCarthy once more places The Road within the medieval dream vision tradition. McCarthy envisions a burned and barren landscape aftermaths of unnamed catastrophe, through the adoption of the medieval dream narrative and post-apocalyptic vision. The thesis explores the implication of the tradition in The Road, and centers on the adoption and transformation of medieval dream vision.Firstly, the introduction to the thesis is presented, and the literary contexts of the medieval dream vision are brought forth as well. It posits that Cormac McCarthy accepts and transforms the medieval dream vision in The Road. Secondly, in the light of medieval dream vision tradition and its research approaches, the two literary poles, dream-as-narrative-event and apocalypse, are explicitly recognized with the close critical reading of medieval dream poetry.The focus of the thesis is on the adoption and transformation of medieval dream vision tradition in the postmodern context. It is crucial to propose that the tradition reemerges in The Road as the reversal of dream vision frame, individualized dream narrative and post-apocalyptic vision. Three stages of medieval dream vision are exemplified by the dream poems written by Chaucer, Langland and others. In addition to the similarities between the medieval traditional narrative and McCarthy's postmodern narrative, the unique three stages and pilgrimage pattern are manifested in The Road.The themes of Modern Apocalypse and Post-apocalypse are the realization of faith and values in traditional apocalypse. The perspective of apocalyptic vision is expounded further on the shift from apocalypse to post-apocalypse, the outlooks of two narratives, the origin and thematic modes of The Road. In conclusion, McCarthy follows the medieval dream vision tradition, with the adoption and transformation of it in terms of structure and theme.