Flannery OConnor: Annotated Bibliography
Ciuba, Gary M.Desire, Violence & Divinity in Modern Southern Fiction: Katherine Anne
Porter, Flannery O'Connor, Cormac McCarthy, Walker Percy. LSU Press, 2007.
This book is helpful in understanding the role that violence plays in OConnors fiction. There is a violent confrontation in Everything That Rises and there is a moment of passion in Good Country People that ends with theft. Both stories leave the reader with many questions, and Ciuba helps to explain the framework that one can use to explain OConnors fiction in order to make sense of it. The book explores the themes of desire, violence, and divinity that are related in this southern fiction and that permeate the narratives of these authors. Ciuba uses the paradigm of mimetic violence that was developed by critic Ren Girard, and with that he looks at how individual human nature is shaped by environmental influences and how these authors expose the roots of violence in southern culture. He says that violence in her works is usually indicative of a moment of grace. The idea is that her characters have such hardened hearts that Gods grace cannot get through to them barring some act of violence. This would be echoed in her later works as well, particularly, The Violent Bear It Away, but it is also useful in understanding her stories Good Country People and Everything That Rises, since both deal with violence and grace in one form or another.
Fitzgerald, Sally & Robert (ed.). Flannery OConner in Mystery and Manners. New York:
Noonday, 1970.
This collection of essays edited by Sally and Robert Fitzgerald provides a comprehensive analysis of O'Connor's works. The book sheds light on O'Connor's use of mystery and manners in her stories, including how one can make sense of the moment of grace in stories like Good Country People and Everything That Rises Must Converge. It shows that for OConnor, these stories are all about grace doing some work in the human soul. The essays thus give great insights into O'Connor's characters,...
…that is seen in Good Country People, but the same ideas certainly apply to Everything That Rises.Sullivan, Walter. "Flannery O'Connor, Sin, and Grace: Everything That Rises Must Converge."
Hollins Critic 2.4 (1965): 1-10.
Sullivan's article connects the ideas of sin and grace in OConnors story Everything That Rises. This is one of the most explicit articles on this matter, as it discusses how the story is very much about sin and the need for Gods grace in the soul. The author shows that the conflict is really about grace getting into the soul of the main characterunexpectedly. In this sense, the story is really about the boynot the mother. She knows where she is going; it is the boy who is lost and in need of real grace. Thus, the article examines the moral dilemmas faced by the characters and how they arrive at the point of departure, where they must come face to face with the moment of grace. This will be helpful in explaining the endings of…
"You've got good blood! I know you wouldn't shoot a lady! I know you come from nice people! Pray! Jesus, you ought not to shoot a lady.... "Lady,"...There were two more pistol reports and the grandmother raised her head like a parched old turkey hen crying for water and called, "Bailey Boy, Bailey Boy!" As if her heart would break. "Jesus was the only One that ever raised the
..if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life." [8] in O'Connor's case, that somebody was lupus. End notes. 1] O'Connor, Flannery. "A Good Man is Hard to Find." Archived at http://xroads.virginia.edu/~DRBR/goodman.html 2] Knickerbopcker, Eric. "Flannery O'Connor: Heaven Suffereth Violence" Available at http://www.mrrena.com/flannery.shtml 3] O'Connor, Flannery. "Everything that Rises Must Converge." Archived at http://www.geocities.com/cyber_explorer99/oconnorconverge.html 4] O'Connor, Flannery. "A Good Man is Hard to Find." Archived at http://xroads.virginia.edu/~DRBR/goodman.html 5] Galloway, Patrick. "The
Flannery O'Connor Writing is an ancient art, used from long ago to convey various aspects, including entertainment, education, recording of history, critiquing and rebuking, writing revelations and many other purposes. There are various forms of writing, in which authors engage to put forth their feelings and intention. Additionally, history has many prolific and congruent writers who made names for themselves through writing instinctively about various themes and issues. Among the writers
Flannery O'Connor was born in Savannah, in the Deep South-East of the United States in 1925. Her adolescence was marked by the death of her father, from whom she later inherited the disease, deadly enemy with whom she fought, without surrender, for a lifetime. (Ann, pp74-78) However, her childhood was marked by more or less serene moments; she was taken to be, at the age of 6 years, a minor
He then utters the story's baffling last line, "It's no real pleasure in life" (O'Connor 1955b, 456). Thus, "A Good Man is Hard to Find" can be read as something of the inverse, or parallel, parable to "Good Country People": In the former, nihilism, or the absence of belief, wins out over faith, despite the Misfit's ugly admonition that his anti-programmatic perception of the world is ultimately not firm
Flannery O'Connor's literature has been described as grotesque, Catholic, Southern, and even gothic. Her work has also been recognized for its harsh humor and criticism of the south. Much of her literature reflects the hostilities she experienced against racist southern attitudes, social structures, and southern ways of life. She was awarded three O. Henry awards for short fiction during her life as well as numerous grants and fellowships. After her
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