Abstrakt
This paper intends to explore significance of maps and mazes in Cormac McCarthy's novels and to analyse the importance of these concepts for our perception of natural environment and space in general. A map is usually considered a pragmatic tool supposed to navigate our way or provide an overview of a certain area and as such should supply knowledge of given place.
However, the role of maps in McCarthy's narratives is much more complex and closely connected to the image of a maze. Following the work of Andrew Keller Estes and his book Cormac McCarthy and the Writing of American Spaces where he discusses maps from an ecocritical perspective, this paper aims to provide detailed analysis of individual occurrences of maps in McCarthy's novels with particular attention to their role in the story, their attributes and limits, and their relationship to the great maze of McCarthy's world.