Repetition Or Innovation:An Intertextual Study Of Cormac McCarthy’s Outer Dark

As a famous novelist in the American literary world,Cormac McCarthy is regarded as a representative of southern and western literature in the United States.He has won Pulitzer Prize.Quill Award,National Book Award and other important literary awards.As an early southern novel.McCarthy’s Outer Dark receives not so much attention of scholars due to its obscure language,its thematic concern of violence and the so-called nihilism compared with his several popular works such as Child of God,Blood Meridian,and The Road.McCarthy has been regarded as "the sole heir" of William Faulkner in literary circles.Such reputation can be proved from the intertextuality of McCarthy’s fiction Outer Dark and Faulkner’s fiction Absalom,Absalom!.Both works show the representation of family relationships,Gothic styles and religious colors.Usually intertextual writing originates from tradition,inherits and develops in the natural evolution,and finally surpasses the tradition.With the help of the theory of intertextuality and other related literary criticism,an intertextual study of above two works is carried out.Based on close reading of texts,this thesis analyzes the dialogues,"palimpsest effect" and Outer Dark’s "Creative Treason"resulted from the intertextuality of two fictions in cultural archetype,narrative mode.characterization,and plot construction.This thesis attempts to make a creative interpretation of Outer Dark on the basis of previous studies of Absalom,Absalom! so as to show the innovation of McCarthy’s fiction on the basis of inheriting the tradition of classics.In addition to Introduction and Conclusion,this thesis is divided into three parts.In the first part,the thesis points out that McCarthy’s Outer Dark has references on Faulkner’s Absalom,Absalom!in terms of cultural archetype,narrative mode and characterization.This kind of intertextual writing not only shows McCarthy’s inheritance but also makes the two novels achieve a dialogue.The dialogism of the two novels is embodied by the mutual use of Eden archetype,the adoption of narrative mode of "lost-quest-redemption" and the design of guilty characters.The study of the intertextuality of novels lies not only in the discovery of the dialogue between novels,but also in the revelation of the heterogeneous transformation of predecessors’ classics.In the second part,this thesis asserts that McCarthy’s Outer Dark is actually a subversive rewriting of Absalom,Absalom!,which endows Outer Dark with a "palimpsest effect".This part points out that the heterogeneous factors of Outer Dark lie in its postmodern narrative features.McCarthy’s postmodern anti-heroes are so helpless that they fail to control their fates.Besides,the open ending,the collage and some other narrative techniques are analyzed and the thesis assumes that the lack of coherence and causal logic in the plot development represents the uncertainty in the postmodern age.In the third part,this thesis comments on the spiritual core of intertextuality shown in the writing of Outer Dark,that is "Creative Treason",for the purpose of demonstration of McCarthy’s innovation on the basis of inheriting the tradition of southern literature.This thesis holds that the creation of Outer Dark transplants many cultural elements of southern literature presented in Absalom,Absalom!,and then deconstructs the realism color of Absalom,Absalom!with intertextuality as a means of "creative treason",and finally reconstructs a bizarre postmodern world of "Paradise Lost".As a postmodern allegory of "Paradise Lost",Outer Dark profoundly reveals the confusion in postmodern society,people’s fear of the unknown,and ugliness and depravity of human nature,which presents McCarthy’s concern and care for the fate of human beings.To sum up,Outer Dark is by no means a simple imitation of the hypotext of Absalom,Absalom!.Its intertextual rewriting of hypertext achieves the dialogue with the canon of McCarthy’s predecessor,and even the transcendence of the hypotext with its adoption of postmodern narrative techniques.