Open AccessThe Functionality of Food in Cormac McCarthy's Desert Imaginary, or Abundance and Scarcity in Blood Meridian or the Evening Redness in the West (1985) and The Road (2006)
Author(s) -
Ovidiu Matiu
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
east-west cultural passage
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2067-5712
pISSN - 1583-6401
DOI - 10.2478/ewcp-2021-0003
Subject(s) - the imaginary , desert (philosophy) , meridian (astronomy) , dystopia , evening , scarcity , history , literature , sociology , art , psychoanalysis , psychology , philosophy , epistemology , astronomy , physics , economics , microeconomics
This article analyzes the concept of food in Cormac McCarthy's dystopian, (post-)apocalyptic fiction, aiming to prove that in the American writer's universe the act of eating is deprived of its social and spiritual dimension, being restricted to its basic functionality similar to that of a meal-replacement product. The analysis draws a parallel between the concept of manna in the Exodus and the types of foodstuffs and their functionality in the novels Blood Meridian or the Evening Redness in the West and The Road , showing that food is one of the constituent ingredients of McCarthy's desert imaginary and is interpreted as a crucial weapon in the fight against death and dehumanization.