Flannery O’Connor (1925-1964)

Flannery O’Connor (1925-1964) Flannery O’Connor

Flannery O’Connor

Uniqueness of O’Connor • Profoundly religious –Catholic upbringing; called herself “the Catholic novelist in the Protestant South” • Painstaking & disciplined writer • Southern Gothic Style –at times a deeply sardonic sense of humor • Increasingly concerned with race relations towards the end of her life • Lupus –caused her to develop a deep sensitivity to misfits & outsiders; showed sympathy to pain & suffering of others • Influences: Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne (interested in the grotesque realm & dark side of human nature) • Fascinated by birds of all kinds; raised ducks, hens, geese, and any sort of exotic bird she could obtain; often incorporated images of peacocks in her books

Andalusia, O’Connor’s Home in Milledgeville, Georgia Flannery O’Connor

ENGL 2030 Experience of Literature: Fiction [Lavery] xxxxx Flannery O’Connor

O’Connor’s Catholicism Flannery O’Connor

I am no disbeliever in spiritual purpose and no vague believer. I see from the standpoint of Christian orthodoxy. This means for me the meaning of life is centered in our Redemption by Christ and what I see in the world I see in relation to that. I don’t think that this is a position that can be taken halfway or one that is particularly easy in these times to make transparent in fiction. --Flannery O'Connor Flannery O’Connor

cosmogenesis: the unfolding of the universe, which includes a distancing from and, ultimately a return to, god. • noosphere: an outgrowth of the geosphere (the physical earth) and the biosphere (the living earth): a zone of mind/thought (nous is the Greek word for “mind”). • homonization: the process of making human the earth is now undergoing. • Omega Point: the end state of evolution in which the Earth, the universe, and the divine being reunite. Flannery O’Connor

One Critics Remarks: “Flannery O'Connor is a Christian writer, and her work is message-oriented, yet she is far too brilliant a stylist to tip her hand; like all good writers, crass didacticism is abhorrent to her. Nevertheless, she achieves what no Christian writer has ever achieved: a type of writing that stands up on both literary and the religious grounds, and succeeds in doing justice to both.” Patrick Galloway, Critic One month before she died in August 1964 she made this chilling comment: “The wolf, I’m afraid, is inside tearing up the place.”

Southern Gothic • A subgenre of the American Gothic novel genre • Like its parent genre, it relies on supernatural, ironic, or unusual events to guide the plot. • Unlike its predecessor, it uses these tools not for the sake of suspense, but to explore social issues and reveal the cultural character of the American South.

Southern Gothic • Southern writers usually avoid perpetuating antebellum stereotypes • The contented slave • The Southern belle • The chivalrous gentleman • The righteous Christian preacher • Instead, they use classic archetypes but portray them in a more modern manner • Damsel in distress • Knight in shining armor

A Writing Culture “the South, perhaps more than any other region, we go back to our home in dreams and memories, hoping it remains what it was on a lazy, still summer's day twenty years ago” (1) - Willie Morris

Famous Writers of the Genre • Harper Lee • William Faulkner • Flannery O’Connor • Eudora Welty • Cormac McCarthy • Tenessee Williams • Truman Capote

Southern Gothic • Notable feature: “The Grotesque” • Depicts cringe-inducing scenes (like the bigoted dialogue of Flannery O’Connor’s characters or the repeated mutilation of Addie’s corpse) • Even though these elements are gross, the characters are sympathetic enough for the reader to remain interested

Flannery O’Connor and The Grotesque Flannery O’Connor

“Philip Thomson in The Grotesque (1972) defines grotesque as ‘the unresolved clash of incompatibles in work and response. It is significant this clash is paralleled by the ambivalent nature of the abnormal as present in the grotesque: we might consider a secondary definition of the grotesque to be the “ambivalently abnormal.”’ To put it more simply a grotesque work of art makes us hesitate between laughter or being appalled, being shocked or amused, being repulsed and attracted at the same time. As an artistic category 'the grotesque' shares some similarities with 'the fantastic', both genres invite an ambivalent and unresolved response.” http://www.jahsonic.com/Grotesque.html Flannery O’Connor

Flannery O’Connor

“[A]nything that comes out of the South is going to be called grotesque by the northern reader, unless it is grotesque, in which case it is going to be called realistic." --Flannery O’Connor Flannery O’Connor

The Grotesque “Distortion . . . is an instrument; exaggeration has a purpose, and the whole structure of the story or novel has been made what it is because of belief. This is not the kind of distortion that destroys; it is the kind that reveals, or should reveal. --Flannery O'Connor Flannery O’Connor

Background • Takes classic Gothic archetypes, such as the monster or the heroic knight, and turns them into American Southerners • a spiteful, reclusive spinster; an uneducated drunk • a quiet, wise lawyer • Most notable feature is the “grotesque” • a character whose negative qualities allow the author to highlight unpleasant aspects in Southern culture. • Something in the town, the house, the farm is bizarre and often falling apart

Defining Feature • Cast of off-kilter characters • Broken bodies, minds or souls • Used to symbolize problems created by the established pattern • Used to question established pattern’s morality and ethical justification • The “Innocent” is a common character, who may or may not be “broken,” but who often acts as a redeemer for others

Other Specific Features of Southern Gothic • Freakishness • Outsider • Imprisonment • Violence • Sense of Place

Freakishness • In most southern gothic stories, there is an important character who is set apart from the world in a negative way by a disability or an odd, and often negative way of seeing the world.

Outsider • Southern novels are filled with characters who are set apart from the established cultural pattern, but who end up being heroes because their difference allows them to see new ways of doing things that ultimately help to bring people out of the “dark.”

Imprisonment • This is often both literal and figurative. • Many southern gothic tales include an incident where a character is sent to jail or locked up. • There are also Southern gothic characters that live in fate's prison.

Violence • Racial, social and class difference often create underlying tension in Southern gothic novels that threatens, and usually does, erupt in violent ways

Sense of Place • You can’t read a Southern Gothic novel without understanding what a Southern town “feels” like: • old small towns • Houses have front porches with rocking chairs • Old downtown with stately but worn-down buildings

Flannery O’Connor (1925-1964)