The Map is not the Territory: The Unconscious Moral Agent and the personal mythopoeic in the novels of Cormac McCarthy

That the unconscious ‘may be laboring under a moral compulsion to educate us,’ is a provocative theory posed by Cormac McCarthy in his recent work of non-fiction, the Kekulé Problem. He suggests that, for several million years — long pre-dating the arrival of complex language — the unconscious has performed a biological function in guiding us on how to live. ‘The map is not the territory’ interrogates the prevalence of dreams and archetypal figures in McCarthy’s novels, as they appear to express the development of his interest in the unconscious. Arguably, this lends itself to the formation of a mythopoeic structure that embodies not just the idea of unconscious moral agency, but also the importance of myth and myth-making in the generation of meaning in human lives.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

mres

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

masters

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Wales Trinity Saint David

Year dc:date.issued

2020

Author dc:creator

• Burke, James

• B Athroniaeth (Cyffredinol)
• PB Ieithoedd Ewropeaidd Modern

Dc Identifier Grantnumber

UWTSD

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:repository.uwtsd.ac.uk:1411