GEMA Online ® Journal of Language Studies Volume 16(2), June 2016 ISSN: 1675-8021 173 Faith and Reason in the Mad Subjectivity: Cormac McCarthy’s Post-apocalyptic Narrative The Road Ali Taghizadeh, PhD altaghee@zedat.fu-berlin.de Razi University of Kermanshah, Iran Ali Ghaderi ali.ghaderi988@yahoo.com Razi University of Kermanshah, Iran ABSTRACT Identified as the core of human subjectivity, madness and the shattered self are among the issues which Cormac McCarthy represents in his brilliant though terrifying narrative The Road. This study attempts to address the representation of subjectivity’s faith and reason in the face of physical and mental struggles in his novel. Moreover, the relation that subjectivity has to the Big Other will be analyzed under Žižekian paradigms. In the pre-Kantian era, the human subject was to struggle against an extremity of madness so as to redeem itself a state of reason. But since Kant proposed that the core of subject/ivity can be madness itself, the struggles represented in McCarthy’s novel have been examined as significant events that show this core of inconsistency and madness. To do so, the present study analyzes his text to show the inconsistency of the subject/ivity of his characters along with the role of reason/madness and their relations to faith in the narrative. Particularly, it would be fruitful to focus on the contribution of what Žižek calls the “Light of Reason” and its fluctuations/fragmentations. The point opposite to this Light would be the Dark of the world, a dire night in which that mad center of human subjectivity could emerge into the novel’s events. For this purpose, the paper will elaborate more thoroughly on Derrida’s and Žižek’s viewpoints regarding Enlightenment and subjectivity. Of the main consideration in McCarthy’s text is deciding about life and death and about the force that compels his protagonists to keep fighting for their survival. Keywords: The Road; other; subject/ivity; reason; madness INTRODUCTION The condition of the post-modern world is the condition of a “world in which everything can be simulated,” a world in which “the copy is increasingly preferred to the original” (Marsden, 1999, p. 3). Hence, in this fake and hysteric condition, the question of the origin is challenged and pondered upon more than ever before. In Cormac McCarthy’s The Road the reader faces a terrifying post-apocalyptic condition where all simulated commodities and ideologies have already lost their meaning and purpose. For example, in this novel, charms and fascinations of the postmodern era like shopping malls, brands of clothes, and so forth, are destroyed. Under the influence of such harsh stimuli, the subjectivity and the faith/reason attached to it would face fluctuations and transformations. In addition, if McCarthy’s readers meditate deeply enough upon his story, they will appreciate his great power of writing. Regarding his fame, one could refer to Bloom’s (2003) putting him among the top four American novelists with Philip Roth, Don DeLillo, and Thomas Pynchon. There are several scholarly works on The Road in the light of which this paper will attempt to present its argument.