Cormac McCarthy’s epic Blood Meridian is perhaps his most renowned work, both celebrated and criticized for its violence and depravity—though also a far more playful book than it's given credit for. It has been compared to everybody from Melville to Pynchon, and is widely considered to be McCarthy's masterpiece.
In these four sessions, we'll take a look at how this book elaborates on a problematic literary tradition, one of America's ugliest. Melville used Judge James Hall's term "Indian-Hating" to explore convictions that were used, it could be argued, to justify genocide, and we'll investigate Blood Meridian through that context. How do we grapple with works that participate in such traditions? We'll also digress into everything from Gnosticism to tarot reading—Blood Meridian is a novel with a seemingly endless number of possible readings. Finally, we'll explore McCarthy’s usage of intertextuality and pastiche, and how they might apply to our own work.
Given the subject matter, our conversations won’t be a walk in the park, but a spirited series of discussions can almost be guaranteed. We’ll do our best to ensure a constructive, sensitive approach to the material, one that allows participants to deeply consider how their own work might either participate in or undermine destructive cultural forces.
Please note that our four-week workshops do not include formal critiques, though there may be opportunities for informal sharing. If you’d like your work critiqued in depth, please see the 8-week workshop listings.
Required Texts:
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
The Truth about Stories: A Native Narrative by Thomas King
Scheduling note: This class will skip the week of Thanksgiving.
