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Flannery O'Connor's concern for truth: Aristotelian and phenomenological implications
Title
Flannery O'Connor's concern for truth: Aristotelian and phenomenological implications.
Creator
Piper, Wendy A., Florida Atlantic University, Pearce, Howard D.
Abstract/Description
Flannery O'Connor's Catholicism assumes a transcendent reality to be manifest in the physical world. In her view, as in the essentialist phenomenology of Edmund Husserl, we must penetrate the surface of reality in order to find the principles and generalities that underlie it. The incarnational nature of O'Connor's fiction reflects this vision. Her grotesque imagery and her use of elements of Aristotelian dramatic form manifest this sense of Mystery in her fiction. Character is revealed...
Show moreFlannery O'Connor's Catholicism assumes a transcendent reality to be manifest in the physical world. In her view, as in the essentialist phenomenology of Edmund Husserl, we must penetrate the surface of reality in order to find the principles and generalities that underlie it. The incarnational nature of O'Connor's fiction reflects this vision. Her grotesque imagery and her use of elements of Aristotelian dramatic form manifest this sense of Mystery in her fiction. Character is revealed through imagery and action. Finally, O'Connor's "reasonable use of the unreasonable" is based directly on Aristotelian "Surprise," which carries enough awe to jar the reader into an experience of the Mystery central to her vision.
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Date Issued
1991
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/14694
Subject Headings
O'Connor, Flannery--Criticism and interpretation
Format
Document (PDF)
WORLD UNBALANCED: THE THEME OF DISORDER IN THE SHORT STORIES OF FLANNERY O'CONNOR
Title
THE WORLD UNBALANCED: THE THEME OF DISORDER IN THE SHORT STORIES OF FLANNERY O'CONNOR.
Creator
WERSHOVEN, CAROL JEAN., Florida Atlantic University, Pearce, Howard D.
Abstract/Description
Flannery O'Connor's short stories often involve a moment of recognition/reversal in which an offering of grace is accompanied by a toppling of the protagonist's sense of social order. The protagonist, who considers himself in some way superior, may be "leveled" into a chaotic equality with all sinners, or he may find the tables turned on him: one who was "first" may become "last." Or both these things may happen to the same protagonist. Such protagonists may be Strong Women, who need to...
Show moreFlannery O'Connor's short stories often involve a moment of recognition/reversal in which an offering of grace is accompanied by a toppling of the protagonist's sense of social order. The protagonist, who considers himself in some way superior, may be "leveled" into a chaotic equality with all sinners, or he may find the tables turned on him: one who was "first" may become "last." Or both these things may happen to the same protagonist. Such protagonists may be Strong Women, who need to believe in an ordered world to maintain their security and status, or Intellectuals, who isolate themselves from the real world, or Displaced Persons, who experience disorder through displacement, or Dwellers in the Past or the Future, who attempt to escape disorder through a retreat into different time periods. Various devices in the stories, such as the double, irony, and symbols, heighten the sense of disorder.
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Date Issued
1974
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/13619
Subject Headings
O'Connor, Flannery--Criticism and interpretation
Format
Document (PDF)
Flannery O'Connor's prepubescents: Two on a pedestal
Title
Flannery O'Connor's prepubescents: Two on a pedestal.
Creator
Thompson, Joan Elaine., Florida Atlantic University, Pearce, Howard D.
Abstract/Description
Flannery O'Connor wrote two stories about antisocial twelve-year-old girls, who live in fractured households where they have little contact with males. In "Temple of the Holy Ghost," the unnamed child is comfortable in her perceived intellectual superiority and allows her imagination to keep her on a cerebral pedestal. The angry Sally Virginia in "A Circle in the Fire" takes refuge in a second-floor window, but later descends for a physical confrontation with three boys threatening the secure...
Show moreFlannery O'Connor wrote two stories about antisocial twelve-year-old girls, who live in fractured households where they have little contact with males. In "Temple of the Holy Ghost," the unnamed child is comfortable in her perceived intellectual superiority and allows her imagination to keep her on a cerebral pedestal. The angry Sally Virginia in "A Circle in the Fire" takes refuge in a second-floor window, but later descends for a physical confrontation with three boys threatening the secure world run by her tyrannical mother. Both girls gain spiritual knowledge: the "Temple" child comes to recognize the sanctity of the female body, while Sally Virginia discovers the familial misery inherent in all people. But Sally Virginia includes both males and females in her understanding of human suffering, while the "Temple" child remains spiritually flawed because of a smugness that equates only females with purity.
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Date Issued
1996
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/15259
Subject Headings
O'Connor, Flannery--Criticism and interpretation, Children in literature
Format
Document (PDF)
children of Flannery O'Connor: Child of quest and child of grace
Title
The children of Flannery O'Connor: Child of quest and child of grace.
Creator
Wolff, Gay H., Florida Atlantic University, Pearce, Howard D.
Abstract/Description
O'Connor reveals glimpses of innocence in her child characters before they are brought to a point of being confronted by the discrepancies of this world, when they must distinguish and choose between the good and evil forces of nature. The child who accepts spiritual values is the child of grace and the child of quest is the one who chooses worldly temptations, instead. The dilemma of O'Connor's adult sinners is illuminated by recognizing their origins in these two child types. This parallel...
Show moreO'Connor reveals glimpses of innocence in her child characters before they are brought to a point of being confronted by the discrepancies of this world, when they must distinguish and choose between the good and evil forces of nature. The child who accepts spiritual values is the child of grace and the child of quest is the one who chooses worldly temptations, instead. The dilemma of O'Connor's adult sinners is illuminated by recognizing their origins in these two child types. This parallel is exemplified by a comparison of child and adult characters in The Violent Bear It Away and "The River." By taking a closer look at the first temptations of evil and the offerings of grace in O'Connor's children, we can recognize the mistakes of her adult sinners more clearly.
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Date Issued
1991
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/14696
Subject Headings
O'Connor, Flannery--Criticism and interpretation, Children in literature
Format
Document (PDF)
Expressions of the religious imagination in the work of Jane Austen and Flannery O'Connor
Title
Expressions of the religious imagination in the work of Jane Austen and Flannery O'Connor.
Creator
Payne, Pamela Wood., Florida Atlantic University, Pearce, Howard D.
Abstract/Description
Jane Austen and Flannery O'Connor possess essentially religious imaginations. The character of their work is determined by the degree of similarity or difference between their beliefs and those generally held by their intended audiences. Austen, an orthodox Anglican in a fundamentally religious era, creates a fiction of restraint: gently satiric, ultimately comic in form and intent, directed to a reader who shares her vision of spiritual and moral order revealed through social structure. O...
Show moreJane Austen and Flannery O'Connor possess essentially religious imaginations. The character of their work is determined by the degree of similarity or difference between their beliefs and those generally held by their intended audiences. Austen, an orthodox Anglican in a fundamentally religious era, creates a fiction of restraint: gently satiric, ultimately comic in form and intent, directed to a reader who shares her vision of spiritual and moral order revealed through social structure. O'Connor, a Catholic in an age of unbelief, writes a fiction of extremity, characterized by fierce satire, violence, grotesquerie, and the juxtaposition of comic characters and situations with tragic form and meaning, directed to an unbelieving reader whom she wishes to "shock" into a new awareness of the sacred. A comparison of the work of Austen and O'Connor in this context leads to a renewed appreciation of the interdependence of imagination and reality in determining the distinctive qualities of a writer's oeuvre.
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Date Issued
1993
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/14889
Subject Headings
O'Connor, Flannery--Criticism and interpretation, Austen, Jane,--1775-1817--Criticism and interpretation, Imagination--Religious aspects
Format
Document (PDF)
Redefining the pastoral in contemporary literature through the works of Flannery O'Connor
Title
Redefining the pastoral in contemporary literature through the works of Flannery O'Connor.
Creator
Jongbloed, Pamelyn., Florida Atlantic University, Furman, Andrew
Abstract/Description
The pastoral form is one of the oldest in the literary tradition. Historically, the definition of "pastoral" was limited to eclogues and idylls that epitomize a simple way of life, usually with shepherds as their subject. Over time, the pastoral genre has undergone numerous metamorphoses that retain some aspects of a simplistic vision, while contradicting the more complex matters that help to define the human condition. These transformations have allowed for pastoral motifs set in direct...
Show moreThe pastoral form is one of the oldest in the literary tradition. Historically, the definition of "pastoral" was limited to eclogues and idylls that epitomize a simple way of life, usually with shepherds as their subject. Over time, the pastoral genre has undergone numerous metamorphoses that retain some aspects of a simplistic vision, while contradicting the more complex matters that help to define the human condition. These transformations have allowed for pastoral motifs set in direct opposition to everyday life in order to exemplify human frailties. In Flannery O'Connor's works, the simplicities of natural southern settings are in direct contrast to the complexities of her characters' situations. Her use of the pastoral mode serves to sharpen the emotions and define the limitations of the all too human characters who inhabit her potentially pastoral ideal.
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Date Issued
2001
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/12753
Subject Headings
O'Connor, Flannery--Criticism and interpretation, Pastoral literature, Women and literature--Southern States--History--20th century
Format
Document (PDF)