The American Novel Since 1945 (ENGL 291) In this second lecture on Blood Meridian, Professor Hungerford builds a wide-ranging argument about the status of good and evil in the novel from a small detail, the Bible the protagonist carries with him in spite of his illiteracy. This detail is one of many in the text that continually lure us to see the kid in the light of a traditional hero, superior to his surroundings, developing his responses in a familiar narrative structure of growth. McCarthy's real talent, and his real challenge, Hungerford argues, is in fact to have invoked the moral weight of his sources--biblical, literary, and historical--while emptying them of moral content. Much as the kid holds the Bible an object and not a spiritual guide, McCarthy seizes the material of language--its sound, its cadences--for ambiguous, if ambitious, ends. 00:00 - Chapter 1. Structural Allusions: McCarthy's Formulation of the Hero 15:08 - Chapter 2. Maturation without Morality: Revising the Bildungsroman 24:50 - Chapter 3. Asserting Immortality: McCarthy's Literary Ambitions 33:12 - Chapter 4. The Bible of the Illiterate Kid: Literary Artifacts and Empty Scripture Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: http://open.yale.edu/courses This course was recorded in Spring 2008.
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Tags: Bible Bildungsroman Bloom good evil moral machinery Robert Alter scripture sound structure
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Lec 2 - Richard Wright, Black Boy
Lec 3 - Flannery O'Connor, Wise Blood
Lec 4 - Flannery O'Connor, Wise Blood (cont.)
Lec 5 - Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita
Lec 6 - Guest Lecture by Andrew Goldstone
Lec 7 - Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita (cont.)
Lec 8 - Jack Kerouac, On the Road
Lec 9 - Jack Kerouac, On the Road (cont.)
Lec 10 - J. D. Salinger, Franny and Zooey
Lec 11 - John Barth, Lost in the Funhouse
Lec 12 - Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49
Lec 13 - Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye
Lec 14 - Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior
Lec 15 - Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping
Lec 16 - Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping (cont.)
Lec 17 - Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian
Lec 19 - Philip Roth, The Human Stain
Lec 20 - Philip Roth, The Human Stain (cont.)
Lec 21 - Philip Roth, The Human Stain (cont.)
Lec 22 - Edward P. Jones, The Known World
Lec 23 - Edward P. Jones, The Known World (cont.)
Lec 24 - Students' Choice Novel: Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything is Illuminated
Lec 25 - Students' Choice Novel: Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything is Illuminated (cont.)