The myth of masculinity in Cormac McCarthy's Border Trilogy
type: CreativeWork
description: This thesis sees Cormac McCarthy’s Border Trilogy as a celebration of the nostalgia and romance characteristic of the Western and the attendant mythologies of masculinity that the genre implies. My argument runs counter to readings of McCarthy’s texts that view them as revising or querying the mythologies of American culture, such as the argument laid out by John Cant. The initiation process undertaken by the two protagonists in the trilogy is compared to the story of Iron John by Robert Bly. The narratives of both are seen as reactions against feminism, and as being involved in the process of remythifying a male coming-of-age story. In relation to this I will discuss John Grady Cole’s role as an embodiment of the mythical cowboy hero. My analysis then interrogates the dearth of female characters in the Border Trilogy, and uncovers some problematic roles for the females that do feature in the books. I go on to identify certain films that have resonances with McCarthy’s fiction. These occur both thematically in their approach to the ‘damsel in distress’ motif, as seen in The Searchers and Cities of the Plain, and with the representations of Mexico seen in The Wild Bunch and the Border Trilogy. Although it is tempting to read the Border Trilogy as a mythoclastic work, it relies on certain Western conventions and finally celebrates rather than queries the mythologies of American culture, and specifically the mythologies of masculinity.
abstract: This thesis sees Cormac McCarthy’s Border Trilogy as a celebration of the nostalgia and romance characteristic of the Western and the attendant mythologies of masculinity that the genre implies. My argument runs counter to readings of McCarthy’s texts that view them as revising or querying the mythologies of American culture, such as the argument laid out by John Cant. The initiation process undertaken by the two protagonists in the trilogy is compared to the story of Iron John by Robert Bly. The narratives of both are seen as reactions against feminism, and as being involved in the process of remythifying a male coming-of-age story. In relation to this I will discuss John Grady Cole’s role as an embodiment of the mythical cowboy hero. My analysis then interrogates the dearth of female characters in the Border Trilogy, and uncovers some problematic roles for the females that do feature in the books. I go on to identify certain films that have resonances with McCarthy’s fiction. These occur both thematically in their approach to the ‘damsel in distress’ motif, as seen in The Searchers and Cities of the Plain, and with the representations of Mexico seen in The Wild Bunch and the Border Trilogy. Although it is tempting to read the Border Trilogy as a mythoclastic work, it relies on certain Western conventions and finally celebrates rather than queries the mythologies of American culture, and specifically the mythologies of masculinity.
author: Middleton, Sarah
language: eng
date published: 2015
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:22:55Z
provider: University of Cape Town
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Department of English Language and Literature

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/13737