Emotional Landscapes, or Running with Cormac McCarthy During a Pandemic

Authors

  • Scott Pearce Deakin University

Keywords:

prosthetic memory, emotionology, narrative, Cormac McCarthy.

Abstract

This piece examnies how landscapes in literary texts create emotinal responses in readers. These responses become a reservoir which readers use to navigate difficutl times. The focus of the piece is on the COVID 19 pandemic and how it resonates with apocalyptic literature.

Author Biography

Scott Pearce, Deakin University

EducationPh.D.: Deakin University, 2016.  Master of Arts: Deakin University, 2012Bachelor of Arts/ Bachelor of Education: Deakin University, 2002 Diploma of Arts: Swinburne University, 1997EmploymentLiterature /English/ History Teacher at Alia College, 2002-present.Recent Publications“Emile Durkheim Rides Again: The Death of the Western Hero and the Rise of the Moral Individualist,” Film & History: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 50 (1), 2020, pp. 67-80.“AMC’s The Walking Dead and the Restructuring of Gender and Race on the Neofrontier,” Weird Westerns: Race, Gender, Genre. Eds. Kerry Fine, Michael K. Johnson, Rebecca M. Lush, and Sara L. Spurgeon, University of Nebraska Press, 2020, pp. 397-431.Novel:Novel: faded yellow by the winter. Melbourne: Reading Sideways Press, 2019.

References

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Cooper, L. (2017) ‘Eating at the Empire Table: Cormac McCarthy’s The Road and the Anglo-Irish Gothic.’ Modern Fiction Studies, 63(3), pp. 547-570.

Duckett, S., Mackey, W. and Stobart, A. (2020) The health effects of the 2019-20 bushfires. Submission to the Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements. Melbourne: Grattan Institute. [Online] [Accessed 31 October 2020] https://grattan.edu.au/wp-content/ uploads/2020/04/Grattan-Institute-submission-to-Royal-Commission.pdf

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Murray-Atfield, Y. and Dunstan, J. (2020) ‘Melbourne placed under stage 4 coronavirus lockdown, stage 3 for rest of Victoria as state of disaster declared.’ Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2 August 2020. [Online] [Accessed 15 October 2020] https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-02/victoria-coronavirus-restrictions-imposed-death-toll-cases-rise/12515914

Schiff, B. (2006) ‘The promise (and challenge) of an innovative narrative psychology.’ Narrative Inquiry, 16(1), pp. 19-27.

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Werner J. and Lyons, S. (2020) ‘The size of Australia's bushfire crisis captured in five big numbers.’ Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 5 March 2020. [Online] [Accessed 15 October 2020] https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2020-03-05/bushfire-crisis-five-big-numbers/12007716

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Published

2020-12-23

Issue

Vol. 6 No. 2 (2020)

Section

Thinking Space

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