« Retracing our steps » : failles géologiques et défaillances familiales dans Goat Mountain de David Vann

This paper wishes to analyze the ways in which David Vann’s Goat Mountain allows for an exploration of the multi-layered faults and fault lines that a group of men grapples with after they come back to their camp for their annual hunting rituals. The novel tracks the events and thoughts of a preteen...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Pauline BOISGERAULT
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Laboratoire d’Etudes et de Recherches sur le Monde Anglophone (LERMA) 2024-12-01
Series:E-REA
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/erea/18562
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1841552544748273664
author Pauline BOISGERAULT
author_facet Pauline BOISGERAULT
author_sort Pauline BOISGERAULT
collection DOAJ
description This paper wishes to analyze the ways in which David Vann’s Goat Mountain allows for an exploration of the multi-layered faults and fault lines that a group of men grapples with after they come back to their camp for their annual hunting rituals. The novel tracks the events and thoughts of a preteen who commits murder and whose adult narrative voice tries to make sense of what came apart at the seams in the Californian landscape and within his own family’s faulty legacy. The main character's inherited desire to pull the trigger bespeaks the inherent violence of the unstable topography and its polymorphous faults and scars. The ruptures that breach the surface of the Californian desert depict the instability that permeates the novel as metaphorical inscriptions of a geological and generational legacy gone wrong. These cracks crisscross a text which attempts to trace the underlying violence back to the origins of the failings while still coping with their haunting fallout.
format Article
id doaj-art-5df2466934504972a4892b8a6d84cecd
institution Kabale University
issn 1638-1718
language English
publishDate 2024-12-01
publisher Laboratoire d’Etudes et de Recherches sur le Monde Anglophone (LERMA)
record_format Article
series E-REA
spelling doaj-art-5df2466934504972a4892b8a6d84cecd2025-01-09T12:55:12ZengLaboratoire d’Etudes et de Recherches sur le Monde Anglophone (LERMA)E-REA1638-17182024-12-0122110.4000/12xg7« Retracing our steps » : failles géologiques et défaillances familiales dans Goat Mountain de David VannPauline BOISGERAULTThis paper wishes to analyze the ways in which David Vann’s Goat Mountain allows for an exploration of the multi-layered faults and fault lines that a group of men grapples with after they come back to their camp for their annual hunting rituals. The novel tracks the events and thoughts of a preteen who commits murder and whose adult narrative voice tries to make sense of what came apart at the seams in the Californian landscape and within his own family’s faulty legacy. The main character's inherited desire to pull the trigger bespeaks the inherent violence of the unstable topography and its polymorphous faults and scars. The ruptures that breach the surface of the Californian desert depict the instability that permeates the novel as metaphorical inscriptions of a geological and generational legacy gone wrong. These cracks crisscross a text which attempts to trace the underlying violence back to the origins of the failings while still coping with their haunting fallout.https://journals.openedition.org/erea/18562genealogyreturnfault linesDavid Vannfaultsgeology
spellingShingle Pauline BOISGERAULT
« Retracing our steps » : failles géologiques et défaillances familiales dans Goat Mountain de David Vann
E-REA
genealogy
return
fault lines
David Vann
faults
geology
title « Retracing our steps » : failles géologiques et défaillances familiales dans Goat Mountain de David Vann
title_full « Retracing our steps » : failles géologiques et défaillances familiales dans Goat Mountain de David Vann
title_fullStr « Retracing our steps » : failles géologiques et défaillances familiales dans Goat Mountain de David Vann
title_full_unstemmed « Retracing our steps » : failles géologiques et défaillances familiales dans Goat Mountain de David Vann
title_short « Retracing our steps » : failles géologiques et défaillances familiales dans Goat Mountain de David Vann
title_sort retracing our steps failles geologiques et defaillances familiales dans goat mountain de david vann
topic genealogy
return
fault lines
David Vann
faults
geology
url https://journals.openedition.org/erea/18562
work_keys_str_mv AT paulineboisgerault retracingourstepsfaillesgeologiquesetdefaillancesfamilialesdansgoatmountaindedavidvann