Utopia in Toni Morrison’s Paradise and Dystopia in Cormac McCarthy’s The Road: Challenging the Myth of American Exceptionalism
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2017-06
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Abstract
This dissertation studies the Myth of American exceptionalism in the Utopian novel Paradise by Toni Morrison and in the dystopian novel The Road by Cormac McCarthy using an analytical-comparative approach. It is noteworthy to know that American exceptionalism manifests itself in different ways, but the most troubling for international politics was the way this myth was explicitly proclaimed in a series of public speeches. Therefore, both novels are studied to criticize this myth through shedding light on its violent nature that justifies war and imperialism. The novels are studied thematically in relation to the elements of Slotkin’s theory regeneration through violence, mainly Frontier and Violence, American hero, Guns and Weapons and American Wars. Moreover, a stylistic analysis is undertaken to show how this myth affects both novels and the political agenda in U.S foreign policy as represented in Bush’s speech in the aftermath of 9/11 Attacks which gave legitimacy and meaning to Iraq Invasion 2003.
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Bush’s speech in the aftermath of 9/11 Attacks which gave legitimacy and meaning to Iraq Invasion 2003.