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'All these things he saw and did not see': Witnessing the end of the world in Cormac McCarthy's The Road

journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-17, 21:46 authored by Hannah StarkHannah Stark
Cormac McCarthy’s The Road can be read as part of the burgeoning field of climate fiction. This article examines the way that environmental anxiety manifests in this text not only through the vision of a future earth that has been devastated, but, as I will argue, at a more symbolic and allegorical level through the metaphoric place of vision, sight, and blindness. Interrogating the metaphor of vision is central to considering this text as climate fiction because it positions the human as the chosen witness to the end of the world. This article examines the anthropocentrism at the heart of McCarthy’s text, and reflects on the place of the human in broader debates about anthropogenic climate change.

History

Publication title

Critical Survey

Volume

25

Pagination

71-84

ISSN

0011-1570

Department/School

School of Humanities

Publisher

Berghahn Books Ltd.

Place of publication

United Kingdom

Rights statement

Copyright 2013 Berghahn Journals

Repository Status

  • Restricted

Socio-economic Objectives

Expanding knowledge in language, communication and culture

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