Abstrakt
The motif of hunt reoccurs throughout Cormac McCarthy's fiction. From the description of Tennessee rural community in The Orchard Keeper through the apocalyptic image of buffalo hunters in Blood Meridian to the art of trappers in The Crossing, the relationship of hunter and prey is one of the fundamental encounters between humans and nature.
However, humans are not only hunters, they also fall prey to predators. While McCarthy is historically accurate in his descriptions of hunting and trapping methods and equipment, the motif of hunt exceeds mere account of historical reality and becomes both a mysterious ritual and a dance of the predator and prey oddly beautiful in its brutality.
In its instability, the rupture between hunter or predator and prey demonstrates the complexity of nature-culture relationship. McCarthy also comments on the role of hunting in terms of changes in the ecosystem and human impact on American nature.
In environmentally oriented criticism, hunt is a sensitive issue. The impact of extensive hunting and extermination of certain species such as buffalo and wolf, and the problematic ethics of hunting are frequently discussed.
While McCarthy often focuses on the technical aspects of hunting or trapping and describes hunting as a kind of art and ritual, his fiction also touches upon the moral connotations of killing wildlife. This paper explores the motif of hunt as a complex issue and besides its aesthetics focuses on the ethical, social, economic, and environmental consequences of hunting in McCarthy's fiction.