Return to Good and Evil Flannery O'Connor's Response to Nihilism

by Edmondson, Henry T., III; Montgomery, Marion

• ISBN13: 9780739104217
• ISBN10: 0739104217
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-09-24
• Publisher: Lexington Books

Summary

Return to Good and Evil: Flannery O'Connor's Response to Nihilism is a superb guide to the works of Flannery O'Connor; and like O'Connor's stories themselves, it is captivating, provocative, and unsettling. Edmondson organizes O'Connor's thought around her principal concern, that with the nihilistic claim that God is dead the traditional signposts of good and evil have been lost. Edmondson's book demonstrates that the combination of O'Connor's artistic brilliance and philosophical genius provide the best response to the nihilistic despair of the modern world--a return to good and evil through humility and grace.

Author Biography

Henry T. Edmondson III is Associate Professor in the Departments of Government and Sociology at Georgia College & State University.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. ix
Preface	p. xi
Acknowledgments	p. xiii
Abbreviations	p. xvii
Faith, Philosophy, and Fiction	p. 1
O'Connor contra Nihilism	p. 19
Modern Man as Malgre Lui in Wise Blood	p. 35
Wise Blood and the Difficult Return to God	p. 55
"Good Country People" and the Seduction of Nihilism	p. 73
The Nature of Evil in "The Lame Shall Enter First"	p. 91
Social Change in "The Enduring Chill"	p. 107
Modernity versus Mystery in "A View of the Woods"	p. 127
Redemption and the Ennoblement of Suffering in "The Artificial Nigger"	p. 145
Grace, the Devil, and the Prophet	p. 165
Endnotes	p. 181
Index	p. 199
About the Author	p. 203
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