The Total Depravity of Nick Cave’s Literary World

摘要

The article argues that Nick Cave's literary (as opposed to his musical) world is characterised by the Calvinist doctrine of total depravity. In both outlining this world and seeking the moment of redemption, I simultaneously construct the framework of that world—in terms of the deranged house of incest, substance abuse, the spread of depravity to nature itself and the way the Bible is woven into that world—and fill in its content, with a specific focus on his novels. As that world gains some body, its dialectical relation to redemption begins to emerge, although with a problematic twist.