“Maimed and Naked Monks in the Bloodslaked Dust”: Augustine, Aquinas, and Cormac McCarthy on Just War

IF 0.1 3区 文学 0 LITERARY THEORY & CRITICISM LIT-Literature Interpretation Theory Pub Date : 2023-01-02 DOI:10.1080/10436928.2023.2209498
J. Dever, L. Cooper, Richard B. Woodward
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Abstract

Perhaps no modern novel describes warfare better than Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian: Or, the Evening Redness in the West (1985), the “bloodiest book since The Iliad,” according to Richard B. Woodward. The novel’s depiction of warfare is a remarkable achievement of prose. William Dalrymple, a British historian, claims that he studied McCarthy’s literary technique in order to write his history of the Anglo-Afghan wars; Blood Meridian’s descriptions of atrocity and warfare, he says, are the handiwork of “a master.” McCarthy scholar Steven Frye argues that it is precisely the aesthetic qualities of the novel that encode its moral vision, a vision “that might seem otherwise absent” (“Blood Meridian” 109). War is rendered in exquisite, even sublime, beauty, transforming the historic record on which the narrative is based into technicolor, panoramic grotesquery. Those stylistic choices are subjective choices, demanding evaluative interpretation. Building on Frye’s assertion that the novel’s aesthetics encode its moral vision, we contend that Blood Meridian’s aesthetically rendered violence offers critical insight into its arguments about the ethics of war. Specifically, we read Blood Meridian’s aesthetic treatment of war through the lens of the tradition of just war theory. Just war theory (JWT) is predicated on the notion of proportionality, authority, and intent, all of which create conditions which must be met in order for war to be just. Read through this lens, Blood Meridian’s bombastic descriptions of the orgiastic mindlessness of
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《血尘中残废赤裸的修道士》:奥古斯丁、阿奎那和科马克·麦卡锡论正义战争
也许没有哪本现代小说比科马克·麦卡锡的《血色子午线:或者,西方的晚红》(1985)更能描述战争,理查德·b·伍德沃德认为这是“自《伊利亚特》以来最血腥的书”。这部小说对战争的描写是散文的杰出成就。英国历史学家威廉·达尔林普尔(William Dalrymple)声称,为了撰写英阿战争的历史,他研究了麦卡锡的文学技巧;他说,《血色子午线》对暴行和战争的描述是“大师”的杰作。麦卡锡学者史蒂文·弗莱认为,正是小说的美学特质编码了它的道德愿景,一种“可能看起来不存在的”愿景(“Blood Meridian”109)。战争呈现出精致,甚至是崇高的美,将叙事所依据的历史记录变成了彩色的、全景的怪诞。这些风格的选择是主观的选择,需要评估性的解释。基于弗莱认为小说的美学编码了其道德视野的论断,我们认为《血色子午线》对暴力的美学渲染为其关于战争伦理的争论提供了批判性的见解。具体来说,我们通过传统的正义战争理论来解读《血色子午线》对战争的美学处理。正义战争理论(JWT)以相称性、权威和意图的概念为基础,所有这些都为战争的正义创造了必须满足的条件。从这个角度来看,《血色子午线》对无脑狂欢的夸张描述
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来源期刊
LIT-Literature Interpretation Theory
LIT-Literature Interpretation Theory LITERARY THEORY & CRITICISM-
CiteScore
0.40
自引率
0.00%
发文量
9
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