Title

ABSURD LIFE SIMULATED UPON THE BLANK CANVAS OF THE WORLD; CORMAC MCCARTHY'S THE ROAD ALONGSIDE BAUDRILLARD AND CAMUS.

Authors

Dwyer, William

Abstract

Cormac McCarthy's novel The Road (2006) and Albert Camus' The Myth of Sisyphus (1942), grapple with the choice of suicide versus struggle when meaning is exposed as socially fabricated. McCarthy declares, "there is no god and we are his prophets", a dismal idea if one is searching for external meaning but conversely an empowering permission to create. McCarthy juxtaposes a father who chooses to produce absurd meaning with a mother who rationally commits suicide. Using Jean Baudrillard's philosophical lens to read The Road, forces the reader to walk through a world of simulacra where floating signifiers are detached from meaning. Combining The Road, Simulacra and Simulation, and The Myth of Sisyphus, exposes that living is irrational because the simulation we have incarcerated ourselves within is absurd; however, McCarthy shows that in embracing the artistic struggle of creating a personal construct we feel most alive.

Subjects

SUICIDE; CAMUS, Albert, 1913-1960; BAUDRILLARD, Jean, 1929-2007; MYTH; PROPHETS; MOTHERS; FATHERS

Publication

Nordlit, 2024, Vol 52, Issue 2, p11

ISSN

0809-1668

Publication type

Academic Journal

DOI

10.7557/13.7852