Art Heals: An Analysis of Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral” in the Context of Dirty Realism

Year 2025, Issue: 69, 108 - 119, 01.10.2025

Mehmet Ali Kaya , Mukadder Erkan

https://doi.org/10.53568/yyusbed.1659444

Abstract

The "Cathedral," considered by many to be Raymond Carver's masterpiece, is a prime example of the dirty realist tradition because of its working-class milieu, simple language, and emphasis on everyday struggles. In the framework of dirty realism, this study looks at how Carver uses art as a transformational medium to analyze topics of human connection, prejudice, and loneliness. The blind individual in the short story exposes the narrator's metaphorical blindness while also challenging traditional disability narratives. By working together to draw a cathedral, Carver exemplifies the special ability of art to transcend communication and emotional obstacles that cannot be addressed by language alone. The cathedral drawing scenario provides a moment of transcendence inside this framework, despite the story's classic dirty realist components, which use minimalist prose to describe the harsh realities of modern existence. In addition to being a means of artistic expression, art may also be a therapeutic tool that promotes empathy, dispels prejudice, and allows for deep human connection. Through the use of close reading and thematic analysis, this study aims to advance Carver scholarship by bringing to light the conflict between the unadorned depiction of social reality in dirty realism and the transformative and healing power of art.

Keywords

Carver , Cathedral , Dirty Realism , Art , Transformation.

Sanat İyileştirir: Raymond Carver’ın “Cathedral”nin Kirli Gerçekçilik Bağlamında Analizi

Abstract

Birçok kişi tarafından Raymond Carver'ın başyapıtı olarak kabul edilen "Cathedral," işçi sınıfı etrafında şekillenen atmosferi, yalın dili ve gündelik mücadelelere yaptığı vurgu nedeniyle kirli gerçekçilik geleneğinin mükemmel bir örneğidir. Bu çalışma, kirli gerçekçilik çerçevesinde Carver'ın sanatı, insan ilişkileri, önyargı ve yalnızlık konularını analiz etmek için dönüştürücü bir araç olarak nasıl kullandığını inceler. Öyküdeki görme engelli adam, anlatıcının metaforik körlüğünü ortaya koyarken aynı zamanda geleneksel engellilik anlatılarına da meydan okur. Carver, bir katedral çizmek için birlikte çalışarak sanatın, yalnızca dil ile çözülemeyen iletişim ve duygusal engelleri aşma konusundaki özel yeteneğini örnekler. Katedral çizimi senaryosu, modern varoluşun katı gerçeklerini anlatmak için minimalist bir dil kullanan hikâyenin klasik kirli gerçekçi bileşenlerine rağmen, bu çerçevenin içinde bir aşkınlık anı sağlar. Sanat, sanatsal ifadenin bir aracı olmasının yanı sıra, empatiyi geliştiren, önyargıları ortadan kaldıran ve derin bir insani bağ kurulmasına olanak tanıyan bir terapötik araç görevi de görebilir. Bu çalışma, yakın okuma ve tematik analiz kullanımı yoluyla, kirli gerçekçilikte toplumsal gerçekliğin süssüz tasviri ile sanatın dönüştürücü ve iyileştirici gücü arasındaki çatışmayı gün yüzüne çıkararak Carver araştırmalarını ilerletmeyi amaçlamaktadır.

Keywords

Carver , “Cathedral” , Kirli Gerçekçilik , Sanat , Dönüşüm

References

• Allen, Bruce. (1983), MacArthur Award Winners Produce Two of Season's Best; Cathedral, by Raymond Carver, The Christian Science Monitor. N. York: Alfred A. Knopf Inc. pp. 212-230.
• Bourdieu, Pierre. (1984), Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Trans. Richard Nice. Cambridge: Harvard UP.
• Boxer, D., & Phillips, C. (1979), 'Will You Please Be Quiet Please?': Voyeurism, Dissociation, and the Art of Raymond Carver. The Iowa Review, 10, (3), pp. 75-90.
• Buford, Bill. Ed. (1983), Dirty Realism. New Writings from America. Granta 8 London, pp. 41-43.
• Bullock, Chris J. (1994), From Castle to Cathedral: The Architecture of Masculinity in Raymond Carver's Cathedral. The Journal of Men's Studies, vol. 2, no. 4, pp. 343-351.
• Carver, Raymond. (2009), Short Stories Collection: Cathedral, “Cathedral”, USA, Vintage Commentaries. pp. 209- 228.
• Clark, Robert C. (2012), Keeping the Reader in the House: American Minimalism, Literary Impressionism, and Raymond Carver’s Cathedral. Journal of Modern Literature 36.1: pp. 104-118. Web.
• Churchwell, Sarah. (2009), Sat 24 Oct. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/oct/24/ernest-hemingway-raymond-carver
• Davis, Lennard J. (2013), The Disability Studies Reader. 4th ed., Routledge
• Ferrari, Gullermina De, (2003) Aesthetics Under Siege: Dirty Realism and P. Juan Gutierrez’s Trilogia sucia de La Habana, Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies, Volume 7, pp. 23-44.
• Harvey, Giles. (2010). The Two Carvers, New York Review of Books. Retrieved May 19, 2010. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/12/24/letters-to-an-editor
• Dewey, John. (2005), Art is Experience. Books, Perigee, New York. (First pb: 1934, reprint in 2005)
• Hemmingson, M. (2008), The Dirty Realism Duo: Charles Bukowski and Raymond Carver on the Aesthetics of the Ugly, (Vol. 70). Wildside Press LLC.
• Henningfeld, Diane Andrews. (2002), Cathedral, Short Stories for Students, Cited in Keeping Our Eyes Closed: Unsustainable Transformation in Raymond Carver’s Cathedral, Madeleine Stein, Raymond Carver Review, Issue 5/6. New York University, Winter 2016/ Spring 2017.ISSN 1940-6126. pp. 35-45.
• Hornby, Nick. (1992), Contemporary American Fiction, London: Vision Press; New York, St. Martin's Press, p. 33.
• Iser, Wolfgang. (1978), The Act of Reading. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, Print.
• Johnston, Taylor. (2017), ’Inside Anything’: The Evacuation of Commodified Space in Raymond Carver’s ‘Cathedral’. The Raymond Carver Review, vol. 5, no. 6, pp. 13-34.
• Kita, Viola. (2014), Dirty Realism in Carver's Work, Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, ISSN 2039-2117, (online) ISSN 2039-9340 (print) MCSER Publishing, Rome-Italy Vol.5 No.22 September, pp. 385-394.
• Kita, Viola (2015), Spiritualism in Raymond Carver’s Work, European Journal of Social Sciences. Volume 2, Issue 1. pp. 216-220.
• Lungeli, Dipak. (2021), Super-Cripple Sights: Disable Heroes in Raymond Carver's Cathedral and Sophocles' Oedipus Rex, Journal of Arts & Humanities, Volume 3, No. 1. pp. 103-112.
• Ning, Yan. (2015), Fullness out of Minimalism—Interpretation on the Narrative Style of Raymond Carver’s Cathedral, Sino-US English Teaching, Vol. 12, No. 10, pp. 795-801.
• Peach, Linden, (1997), K Marts and Lost Parents': 'Dirty Realism' in Contemporary American and Irish Fiction, Critical Survey, 1997, Vol. 9, No. 2 pp. 61-79.
• Peterson, Poly Rose. (2012), Psychological Distance in Raymond Carver’s Cathedral, The Explicator 70.3, pp. 167-169. Print.
• Price, Joanna. (1993), Remembering Vietnam: Subjectivity and Mourning in American New Realist Writing, Journal of American Studies, 27.2, p. 174.
• Pountney, Jonathan. (2020), The Literary Afterlife of Raymond Carver: Influence and Craftmanship in the Neoliberal Era, Edinburgh University Press, Online ISBN: 9781474455527
• Sadeq, Ala Eddin. (2016), Epiphanic Awakenings in Raymond Carver’s Cathedral and Alice Walker’s Everyday Use, Advances in Language and Literary Studies ISSN: 2203-4714 Vol. 7 No. 3; June, Australian International Academic Centre, Australia Ala Eddin Sadeq, pp. 157-160.
• Saltzman, Arthur M., (1988), Understanding Raymond Carver, Columbia, S.C.: University of South Carolina Press.
• Santana, Cintia, (2013), Forth and Back: Translation, Dirty Realism, and the Spanish Novel, Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press.
• Scofield, Martin. (1994), Negative Pastoral: The Art of Raymond Carver’s Stories. The Cambridge Quarterly 23.3: 243-62. Print.
• Seemann, Brian. (2007), Existential Connections, The Raymond Carver Review, Issue 1(6), (Winter) ISSN 1940-6126, pp. 75-92.
• Stein, Madeleine. (2017), Keeping Our Eyes Closed: Unsustainable Transformation in Raymond Carver’s Cathedral, Raymond Carver Review, Issue 5/6. New York University, Winter/ Spring 2017.ISSN 1940-6126. pp. 35-45. Thomas, Ronald Stuart. ‘Henry James’, https://crushedfingers.tumblr.com/post/26835898198/henry-james-r-s-thomas.
• Wiederhold, Eve. (2009), A Feminist Re-Vision of the Work of Interpretation in Raymond Carver’s Cathedral, The Raymond Carver Review Issue Two, George Mason University. Spring Issue, ISSN 1940-6126
• Wriglesworth, Chad. (2008), Raymond Carver and Alcoholics Anonymous. New Paths to Raymond Carver. Ed. S. L. Kleppe and Robert Miltner. Columbia: U of South Carolina, pp.132-153.