Raymond Carver and the Modern Career Imaginary

Almost without exception, critics endorse the idea that Raymond Carver’s Cathedral marks a turn toward affirmation in the context of his career. That the stories themselves strongly suggest otherwise shows the degree to which Carver studies is enthralled by a redemptive career story propagated in part by Carver himself. That narrative and its popularity derive from the poverty of the career imaginary, which favors a developmental logic unlikely to do justice to the complex relations between texts. Reading Cathedral against the grain of the critical consensus shows how Cathedral revisits the bleak perspective of his earlier work and enables Carver to serve as an example of the need to enhance our understanding of modern literary careers.