Consciousness, Existentialism, and the Expressive Irrationality of the Human Condition in Cormac McCarthy’s Suttree

Author

• Noah Walters, University of MississippiFollow

Date of Award

Spring 5-7-2026

Document Type

Undergraduate Thesis

Department

English

First Advisor

Matt Bondurant

Second Advisor

Bryan Smyth

Third Advisor

Annette Trefzer

Relational Format

Dissertation/Thesis

Abstract

This thesis is an examination of the 1979 semi-autobiographical novel Suttree by Cormac McCarthy through an inventive neurophilosophical-existential framework. This exercise involves the observation of a subtle interiority present within the infamously opaque words of McCarthy, and then examines the ways in which this extant interiority relates to consciousness. Literary studies on consciousness are explored, as well as the work of neurophilosopher Daniel Dennett. The novel is then explored through the context of its existentialism, engaged in interactions with other existential novels, and then explored through the existential system of Jean-Paul Sartre. Then, too, will Sartre’s examination of consciousness serve a purpose in the exploration of consciousness in the novel, and will be resolutely tied in with the prior analysis of literary consciousness. Through this investigation, this framework of understanding Suttree will prove its usefulness as a mode of literary understanding, but also serve as a stage from which insights can be made about the works that were used to form this framework in the first place, allowing a reframed concept of the human condition and consciousness.

Recommended Citation

Walters, Noah, "Consciousness, Existentialism, and the Expressive Irrationality of the Human Condition in Cormac McCarthy’s Suttree" (2026). Honors Theses. 3460.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis/3460

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.