Readings on Flannery O'Connor

by Hurley, Jennifer A.

• ISBN13: 9780737705621
• ISBN10: 0737705620
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-01-01
• Publisher: Greenhaven Pr

Summary

An examination of O'Connor's works offers a biographical overview of the author, critical essays by varied experts, and a discussion of concurrent historical events.

Table of Contents

Foreword	9	(2)
Introduction	11	(2)
Flannery O'Connor: A Biography	13	(12)
An Introduction to Flannery O'Connor
The First Great Modern Writer from the South	25	(16)
Alice Walker
O'Connor's writing has the capacity to dazzle, shock, and delight
She is the first great modern writer from the South
O'Connor's Challenge to Her Readers	41	(10)
Marilyn Chandler McEntyre
In most of Flannery O'Connor's stories, devastating acts of violence provoke her characters to experience epiphanies
Her objectives are to restore her readers with the capacity for shock and to challenge them to recognize their own moral weaknesses
Emblematic Moments in O'Connor's Fiction	51	(3)
Jill Pelaez Baumgaertner
At key moments in her stories, O'Connor ``clicks a camera'' and captures a violent, bizarre, or surprising picture
These pictures are reminiscent of seventeenth-century emblems---pictorial representations of a spiritual truth
O'Connor's Bleak View of Human Nature	54	(4)
Martha Stephens
The incidents of death and devastation that occur so frequently in O'Connor's work reflect her pessimistic view of the world
One indication of O'Connor's contempt for human life is the grotesque imagery she uses to describe the human body
O'Connor's Place in the Literary Tradition of the South	58	(9)
C. Hugh Holman
Flannery O'Connor shared the subjects and concerns of other prominent writers of the American South
however, she differed from her fellow Southerners in that her vision of the world was fundamentally religious
Representations of Race in O'Connor's Work	67	(10)
Ralph C. Wood
Although some critics charge O'Connor with racism, representations of race in her fiction reveal her conviction that blacks and whites must learn to live together as equals
O'Connor's Predominant Themes
The Role of Grace in O'Connor's Fiction	77	(6)
Andre Bleikasten
Flannery O'Connor's fiction is concerned with the decisive moments of existence in which her characters experience the grace of God
Violence in O'Connor's Work	83	(5)
Josephine Hendin
The prevalence of violence in O'Connor's fiction reveals her vision of the universe as a place of struggle, isolation, and rage
O'Connor's Use of the Grotesque	88	(7)
Carter W. Martin
O'Connor uses four types of grotesque descriptions---deformity and feeblemindedness, illness and disease, animal imagery, and machine imagery-to indicate the spiritual deficiencies of her characters
O'Connor Questions the Value of Beauty	95	(6)
Edward Kessler
O'Connor's interest in ugliness instead of physical beauty reveals one of her most important themes: her belief that appearances are not reliable signs of inner value
A Critical Selection
Psychology in ``Everything That Rises Must Converge''	101	(8)
Preston M. Browning Jr.
Julian, the sour and sell'-righteous intellectual in ``Everything That Rises Must Converge,'' detests the values of the South and everyone who exhibits those values---especially his mother
However, Julian's hatred for his mother is a means by which he avoids confronting his own ambivalence about his Southern heritage
The Comic Redemption in ``Revelation''	109	(8)
Ralph C. Wood
In ``Revelation,'' one of O'Connor's most anthologized stories, Ruby Turpin's complacent beliefs about herself and her position in society are challenged when she is attacked in a doctor's waiting room by a surly college student
A Critical Study of ``A Good Man Is Hard to Find''	117	(6)
Miles Orvell
In O'Connor's most widely read story, ``A Good Man Is Hard to Find,'' a summer vacation to Florida turns deadly when a family encounters The Misfit, a violent criminal who has broken out of prison
However, the grandmother's meeting with The Misfit causes her to experience a moment of redeeming grace
A Contrasting View of ``A Good Man Is Hard to Find''	123	(10)
Stephen C. Bandy
Flannery O'Connor's statement that the grandmother's final gesture in ``A Good Man Is Hard to Find'' is an act of grace is faulty and limits readers' interpretations of this complex story
The story's theme is not one of redemption, but one of pessimism
Prophecy in ``The Displaced Person''	133	(6)
Kathleen Feeley
``The Displaced Person,'' O'Connor's story of a family of Christian Polish refugees who come to live at a farm in the American South, contains two prophets: Mrs. Shortley, a false prophet who fears that the displaced person is usurping her position, and Mr. Guizac, a true prophet who lives his life according to Christian principles
``Parker's Back'': The Transformation of an Unbeliever	139	(8)
Richard Giannone
``Parker's Back,'' one of O'Connor's most comic stories, depicts the transformation of O.E. Parker from an idle young beer---drinker enamored with tattoos and women to a humble servant of God
Chronology	147	(4)
For Further Research	151	(3)
Index	154