In this intimate in-person series, we will read Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian through the lens of genre and history. Through lectures, discussions, and a handful of supplemental readings, the group will untangle this often arcane but decidedly major work.

In the United States, founded in an age of printing, literature has historically operated as the most influential and important mechanism for mythmaking. Unlike older nations, where cultural mythmaking predated the printing press—or the native societies that were already here, which worked in the oral tradition—early American colonies were settled by Puritans who were fanatical about the persuasive power of books and pamphlets. During westward expansion, printed literature realized its full mythic potential with the introduction of a new narrative genre: in the Western, plucky frontiersman conquered the wilderness (its landscape, animals, and people) in pursuit of American promise and under the banner of manifest destiny. Through fiction, the grisly violence that defined this period was reframed in heroic terms; and directly from these works the national character took shape.

Two hundred years into the American experiment, Cormac McCarthy published his now-infamous anti-Western, an extensively researched gory saga in which the Daniel Boones of popular pulp were replaced by a ragtag band of degenerates and sociopaths. After temporarily bewildering most critics, Blood Meridian became the subject of cult devotion, multidisciplinary scholarship, reappraisal, and eventually widespread acclaim.

In this series, weekly seminars will draw on literary research, history, and theory, as well as rare materials ranging from visual art to David Foster Wallace’s heavily annotated personal copy of the novel. Participants will develop a personal close-reading practice, learning how fine attention to language, style, and other narrative elements can get us both deeper into a text and beyond it, into the wider world of ideas. The overarching theme of regeneration through violence—which illuminates the relationship between myth, literature, and the formation of American culture—will arise throughout. Sessions will introduce archival materials from the Witliff Collections (San Marcos, Texas), where McCarthy’s papers are held; the Harry Ransom Center (Austin, Texas); and the New York Public Library.

This series aims to establish a salon-style cultural space for discussing literature that sits between the formal classroom and the casual book club. In a rigorous, social, and fun environment, we’ll consider the pleasure of giving a single work our sustained attention.

• Develop close-reading skills applicable to Blood Meridian and beyond
• ​Read and form an individual perspective on a major literary work
• Analyze Slotkin’s theory of regeneration through violence and the role of literature in American mythmaking
• ​Discover the historical source material that informed Blood Meridian; explore strategies for reading historical meaning in a literary novel

Week 1

An introductory seminar will cover the anti-Western, frontier Gothic, and historical romance genres, as well as the extensive use of historical references in Blood Meridian (McCarthy is said to have read some 300 books as research). A discussion and demonstration of close-reading will demystify the practice.

Week 2

As participants get acclimated to McCarthy’s high style and strange register, the group will consider symbol, allusion, language, interiority, and narrative method. Subtopics: dogs, Western cinema, celestial activity, and the King James Bible.

Week 3

This week will focus on the theory of regeneration through violence, literature as the original instrument of mythmaking in the United States, and the Western novel’s influence on the development of a distinctly American national character.

Week 4

As the group approaches the end of the novel, alternative interpretations—including more theological and philosophical readings—will be introduced. Plus: The Kid as antiprotagonist, McCarthy’s literary influences, show and tell.

Week 5

The final seminar will consider various interpretations of Judge Holden. In McCarthy’s mysterious telling, is he the devil? Immortal? Supernatural? Is he the whale from Moby-Dick? Your instructor has another theory. The group will discuss the novel’s ending.

Grace Perri Barnes is a literary editor, as well as an occasional researcher and critic, with over a decade of experience working across the book publishing industry. Authors with whom she’s worked have received the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, National Book Critics Circle Award, PEN/Faulkner Award, and numerous other recognitions. Grace studied English at Tulane University, where her curriculum emphasized Southern literature.

Index scholarships are designed to benefit members of our community who do not have expendable cash to pay for the course, and those for whom the class price is not accessible. These need-based scholarships will go to the candidates who best demonstrate why they should be chosen for the free spot to our class based on the following criteria:

• Belong to groups that are traditionally underrepresented in the graphic design and creative industries
• Do not have jobs that would pay for these courses as professional development
• Cannot independently afford the class at list price
• Share our value of intentional community

The number of selected applicants chosen is subject to the discretion of Index and the instructor, but every course will select at least one. Apply for a scholarship here. Applications close April 20th.

We get that things come up, but we rely on headcounts make our programs viable. If you request a refund...

More than 4 weeks before the program begins → 100% refund

More than 2 weeks before the program begins → 50% refund

Fewer than 2 weeks before the program begins → No refund

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