A Study Of Violence In Cormac McCarthy’s “Border Novels”

Cormac Mc Carthy,a novelist who grew up in the American South,began to turn his attention to the American Southwest,especially the U.S.-Mexico border,in the midto late-1970 s,and produced five novels set along the U.S.-Mexico border in quick succession.These five novels,which are set in the United States and Mexico,are distinctly trans-regional and go beyond the scope of American Western and Southwestern novels,and can therefore be collectively referred to as “border novels”.What is even more unique is that these five novels are filled with scenes of violence,and violence becomes a common theme in these novels.Where does violence come from,how does the art of fiction present it,and what is the logic of its occurrence are the questions that this paper focuses on in order to interpret Mc Carthy’s “border novels”in detail.Chapter 1 explores the sources of violence in Cormac Mc Carthy’s “border novels”from a historical perspective.The first section begins with the formation of the U.S.-Mexico border and traces the history of violence caused by cultural differences and ethnic conflicts since the formation of the border.The second section explores the economic problems caused by drugs and the relationship between political problems and drug violence,focusing on the history of drugs in the United States and Mexico.The third section looks at the context in which the “border novels” were written,analyzing how the Vietnam War and the 9·11 attacks influenced Mc Carthy’s writing on violence.Chapter 3 discusses the logic of violence in Cormac Mc Carthy’s “border novels”from a philosophical perspective.Starting from Freud’s death instinct and Collins’ s theory of attacking the weak,the first section discusses the essence of violence in Mc Carthy’s “border novels” as an attack by the strong on the weak,and this attack is the release of the death drive.The second section discusses Mc Carthy’s “border novels”questioning of the European Enlightenment and critique of modernity,using Judge Holden in Blood Meridian and Chigurh in No Country for Old Man as examples.The third section discusses Mc Carthy’s “border novels” in terms of what Benjamin called“sacred violence,” and discusses the distrust of legislative violence and the possibility of ruinous violence in Mc Carthy’s “border novels”.Chapter 3 explores the aesthetic value of violence in Cormac Mc Carthy’s “border novels” from the perspective of aesthetics.The first section analyzes how the Gothic landscape and the grotesque writing of the body create a Gothic aesthetic style of violence.The second section discusses Mc Carthy’s borrowing of violence from Westerns,using John Ford and Sergio Leone’s Westerns as examples.The third section focuses on the dramatic violence in the Frontier Trilogy,and discusses the sublime beauty of violence that Mc Carthy drew inspiration from the tragedies of classical literature.