International Cormac McCarthy Conference
Trinity College, Dublin
June 14-17, 2022
sponsored by the Cormac McCarthy Society
with the participation of
the Irish Association for American Studies
​
PROGRAM
Tuesday June 14
2:00-4:00 Registration
4:00-4:30 Welcoming Comments
4:30-6:00 IAAS Panel: “Cormac McCarthy in Ireland”
Alan Gibbs, University College Cork
Clare Hayes-Brady, University College Dublin
Dara Downey, Trinity College Dublin
6:30-8:00 Plenary Address by Kevin Power:
“Babycinos at the End of the World: Parenthood and Cormac McCarthy”
Reception hosted by IAAS
Wednesday June 15
9:00-10:15 History, Context, and Ethics
“McCarthy, Catholicism, and the American Gothic: The Gardener’s Son as a Pivotal Text,” Farrell O’Gorman, Bellmont Abbey College
“Cormac McCarthy and the Sovereignty of the Good,” Brent Walter Cline, Hillsdale College
10:30-11:45 McCarthy and the Irish Tradition
“’A Saint’s Kept Body’: The Power of the Dead in the Works of Cormac McCarthy and Seamus Heaney,” Mark Maynard, Truckee Meadows
Community College
"'In a world darksome as this'n': Gothic Longing in Cormac McCarthy's Outer Dark and James Joyce's 'The Dead,'" Brett Lewis, The
University of Memphis
“McCarthy and Irish Writers: Recent Developments in Criticism,” Richard Russell, Baylor University
11:45- 1:00 Lunch (independent)
1:00-2:15 The Road: Literary and Historical Contexts
“Wounded Speech: Lament, Gratitude, and Consolation in Cormac McCarthy’s The Road,” Haein Park, Biola University
“Homosocial Dynamics of Disaster in Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy and Cormac McCarthy’s The Road,” Tammis Thomas, University of Houston, Downtown
“’Could you crush that beloved skull?’: Parenthood, Infanticide, and Economics in The Road,” Julian Caradec, Board Bass High School,
Castres, France
2:30-3:45 McCarthy, Science, and the Interdisciplinary
“Hunger: McCarthy, Land Use, and Ethical Consumption in the Face of Biodisaster,” Lydia R. Cooper, Creighton University
"The Stuff of Creation: Complexity and Creativity in Later Cormac McCarthy," Ciarán Dowd
4:00-5:15 McCarthy’s Wests: New Interventions
“'We should destroy this': Dylan, Cormac, and Ireland in the American Voice,” Brian James Schill, University of North Dakota
“Strange Equanimity: Naturalism and the Mythic Landscapes in Blood Meridian,” Steven Frye, California State University, Bakersfield
6:00-8:00 Conference Dinner, Trinity College, Dublin
Thursday June 16
8:00-12:00 Bloomsday Events
12:00-2:00 Lunch (independent)
2:00-3:15 Anticipating The Passenger and Stella Maris
Ciarán Dowd
Lydia Cooper, Creighton University
Stacey Peebles, Centre College
4:00-5:15 The Oxford Bibliography to Cormac McCarthy Online: A Presentation
Steven Frye, California State University, Bakersfield
Friday June 17
10:00-11:15 Blood Meridian and The Road: New Interventions
“Images and Memories of Famine in Cormac McCarthy’s The Road,” David Deacon, BIMM Institute, London
“The Evening Redness in the West: McCarthy’s Catholic Roots in Blood Meridian,” Paolo Vigano, University of Milan
“Itinerate Skins: Mark Making in Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian,” Kieran Cremin, University of Edinburgh
11:30-12:45 Landscape, Politics, and the Sublime
“From Orchards to Ranches and Back: Cormac McCarthy’s Middle Landscapes,” Katerina Kovarova
“Madness without Restraint: Cormac McCarthy, Political Order, and the Burkean Sublime,” Patrick D. O’Connor, Staffordshire University
1:00-2:30 Lunch (independent)
2:30-3:45 Panel Discussion: “The Ethics and Practice of Researching a Contemporary Author”
Bryan Giemza, Texas Tech University
Stacey Peebles, Centre College
5:00-7:00 Closing Address and Reception