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Los Alamos and its Contemporary ‘Remains’: Cormac McCarthy and William Eggleston

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Abstract

Los Alamos, New Mexico – a largely uninhabited desert area – became the site of the Manhattan Project, the federal programme launched during the Second World War to develop the atomic bomb. As a secret city and the ultimate symbol of US scientific, military and economic ‘progress’, Los Alamos also evokes the image of ‘ultimate things’. This paper focuses on two great American authors who, through different media, have considered Los Alamos as a key to offering their own image of the contemporary landscape and its ‘remains’; the writer Cormac McCarthy and the photographer William Eggleston.


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Submitted: Oct. 1, 2024 | Published Dec. 11, 2024 | Language: en

Keywords West • Eggleston • Remains • Image • McCarthy • Landscape • Novel • Literature • Photography

Copyright © 2024 Virginia Gerlero. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/978-88-6969-878-1/007


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