"A KNIGHT OF GHOSTS AND SHADOWS": CORMAC MCCARTHY'S ALL THE PRETTY HORSES AND THE AESTHETICS OF ADVENTURE.

A typical American coming-of-age novel, "All the Pretty Horses" (1993) is Cormac McCarthy's masterful way of dealing with universal topics such as boyhood, parents and children, violent passions, and friendship. Yet the mythical tonalities and crafted structure hide an intricate philosophical web, which brings adventure fiction codes and environmental issues together. My paper aims to highlight the relation between character and nature and to question the realism of the novel. I will also try to explain why Cormac McCarthy's narrative style encourages allegorical readings, while subverting them at the same time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]