American Literature / Unit 18 AML 1733 short lesson, about 20 seconds
McCarthy's Sources and the Question of Origins
Captions available
The idea
The witness lists the novel's major sources: the Bible, Moby-Dick, Paradise Lost, the poetry of Wordsworth, and the historical narrative of Samuel Chamberlain. McCarthy engages both literary tradition and American history, and questions originality itself in doing so.
In practice
Five sources, and a question about originality.
Where people slip
The Chamberlain narrative is a historical memoir.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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