Abstract
The debate on the topic of wilderness had never been so passionate as in the twentieth century. Numerous attempts to preserve certain wild areas in the United States of America evolved into nationwide discussion about the meaning of wilderness for human spirit and its role in the modern man's environment.
From the very beginning people connected the idea of wilderness with strong emotions. From the fear it originally aroused in human beings this relationship gradually evolved into fear of losing wilderness altogether.
This development was deeply influenced by growth of environmental awareness in the twentieth century, and the process still continues. Since Romanticism, the men of letters became important advocates of wilderness and often accented its importance.
Cormac McCarthy belongs to the long line of these authors. McCarthy wrote the majority of his novels in the second half of the twentieth century, right in the midst of the passionate debate on American wilderness.
The aim of this contribution is to analyse McCarthy's approach to this complex topic and its significance in his novels. The main question is in what terms McCarthy describes wilderness and to what extent his wilderness imagery fulfils the various definitions of this complex concept.
In order to analyse McCarthy's approach to wilderness, this contribution will derive its theoretical basis mainly from the work of Roderick Nash and Sigurd F. Olson, who both greatly assisted to form the awareness of the wilderness issue in the twentieth century.