CRITICISM

Campbell, Neil. “Liberty Beyond Its Proper Bounds: Cormac McCarthy's History of the West in Blood Meridian.” In Myth, Legend, Dust: Critical Responses to Cormac McCarthy, edited by Rich Wallach, pp. 217-26. New York: Manchester University Press, 2000.

Argues that Blood Meridian is a re-conceptualization of the traditional Western as established by Frederick Jackson Turner.

Daugherty, Leo. “Gravers False and True: Blood Meridian as Gnostic Tragedy.” Southern Quarterly 30, no. 4 (summer 1992): 122-33.

Links Gnostic thought to Blood Meridian through an assessment of four characters from the novel.

Jarrett, Robert L. “Rewriting the Southwest: Blood Meridian as a Revisionary Western.” In Cormac McCarthy, pp. 63-93. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1997.

Portrays Blood Meridian as a shift away from the Southern perspective underlying McCarthy's first novels to a more Southwestern view which mirrors the historical outward growth of the nation.

Luce, Dianne C. “On the Trail of History in McCarthy's Blood Meridian.” Southern Quarterly 49, no. 4 (fall 1996): 843-49.

Review of John Emil Sepich's Notes on Blood Meridian that commends the detailed historical analysis by Sepich.

Owens, Barclay. “Blood Meridian and Literary Naturalism.” In Cormac McCarthy's Western Novels, pp. 45-61. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2000.

Depicts Blood Meridian as a work of modern Naturalism.

Parkes, Adam. “History, Bloodshed, and the Spectacle of American Identity in Blood Meridian.” In Cormac McCarthy: New Directions, edited by James D. Lilley, pp. 103-24. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2002.

Suggests Blood Meridian can be seen as an allegory for the birth of America.

Parrish, Timothy L., and Elizabeth A. Spiller. “A Flute Made of Human Bone: Blood Meridian and the Survivors of American History.” Prospects 23 (1998): 461-81.

Offers the opinion that Blood Meridian allows the reader to properly view the power struggles and bloodiness of the Old West as they really were without the tainted perspectives offered by previous portrayals.

Peebles, Stacy. “Yuman Belief Systems and Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian.” Texas Studies in Literature and Language 45, no. 2 (summer 2003): 231-44.

Asserts that, contrary to many analyses, Blood Meridian does not entirely eliminate mythology from the narrative, but instead substitutes ideas and legends of the Yuma tribe.

Phillips, Dana. “History and the Ugly Facts of Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian.” American Literature 68, no. 2 (June 1996): 433-60.

Definitive essay that sees Blood Meridian as a critique of stereotypical romanticized Western novels that obscure the truth of how ugly the Wild West could be.

Pughe, Thomas. “Revision and Vision: Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian.” Revue Française D'Études Américaines 17, no. 62 (November 2000): 371-82.

Alleges that rather than correcting the stereotyping sins of past Western novels, McCarthy has created a visionary examination of human history.

Shaviro, Steven. “‘The Very Life of Darkness’: A Reading of Blood Meridian.” Southern Quarterly 30, no. 4 (summer 1992): 111-21.

Examines how the repeated imagery of death and blood are manifestations of the primordial condition of life.

Shaw, Patrick W. “The Kid's Fate, the Judge's Guilt: Ramifications of Closure in Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian.” Southern Literary Journal 30, no. 1 (fall 1997): 102-19.

Explores the thematic presentation of closure in Blood Meridian.

Wallach, Rick. “From Beowulf to Blood Meridian: Cormac McCarthy's Demystification of the Martial Code.” Southern Quarterly 36, no. 4 (summer 1998): 113-20.

Compares Blood Meridian to the Old English epic poem Beowulf noting the manner in which each demonstrates the so-called “martial code.”

Additional coverage of McCarthy's life and career is contained in the following sources published by Thomson Gale: American Writers Supplement, Vol. 8; Authors & Artists for Young Adults, Vol. 41; Beacham's Encyclopedia of Popular Fiction: Biography and Resources, Vol. 2; Contemporary Authors, Vols. 13-16R; Contemporary Authors New Revision Series, Vols. 10, 42, 69, 101; Contemporary Literary Criticism, Vols. 4, 57, 101; Contemporary Novelists, Ed. 7; Contemporary Popular Writers; Contemporary Southern Writers; Dictionary of Literary Biography, Vols. 6, 143, 256; DISCovering Authors Modules: Popular Fiction and Genre Authors; DISCovering Authors 3.0; Encyclopedia of World Literature in the 20th Century, Ed. 3; Literature and Its Times Supplement, Ed. 1:2; Literature Resource Center; Major 20th-Century Writers, Ed. 2; and Twentieth Century Western Writers, Ed. 2.