The Grotesque Fiction of Flannery O Connor

Flannery O’Connor: 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 O’Connor’s 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 O’Connor’s 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 René 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 God’s 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 O’Conner 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 O’Connor, these stories are all about grace doing some work in the human soul. The essays thus give great insights into O'Connor's characters, their motivations, and the societal and religious themes that exist between the lines. In short, this is a great book for examining her often grotesque characters and making sense of their actions and what happens to them in the end. It will be a good reference for explaining what is happening in her stories “Good Country People” and “Everything That Rises.”

Giannone, Richard. Flannery O’Conner and the Mystery of Love. New York: Fordham UP,

Giannone's book looks at the theme of love in O'Connor's stories. It provides insight into “Everything That Rises Must Converge” and how the mystery of love plays a part in its meaning. The book explains that O’Connor never has a simplistic view of human relationships, but rather that every character is involved whether he knows it or not in a search for meaning. The role of faith in understanding love is also examined. Giannone provides a good analysis of O'Connor's characters and their struggles with love, faith, hope, and identity. This book will provide good support for examining and understanding the stories “Good Country People” and “Everything That Rises.”

Gooch, Bard. Flannery: A Life of Flannery O’Connor. New York: Little, Brown, 2009.

Bard Gooch's biography goes into good detail on the life and works of Flannery O’Connor. The book tells about O'Connor's upbringing, her devout Catholic background, and how her personal experiences, faith, and environment all converged to influence her writings. Gooch also looks into O'Connor's unique style of writing, which combines elements of the religious and the grotesque. Overall, this is a great source for further understanding how grace and the mystery of free will are intertwined in O’Connor’s stories, particularly as it relates to “Everything That Rises” and “Good Country People.” It would be useful in showing that O’Connor was drawing on real life issues and people in the south for inspiration, but that she was also guiding her plots towards an outcome that remains suspended in terms of how the characters will respond to the moment of grace that she defines.

Shafiq, Jinan Abdulla. "Dysfunctional Families: A Study in Flannery O’Connor’s 'A Good Man

is hard to Find' and 'Good Country People'."

This study by Jinan Abdulla Shafiq looks into the theme of dysfunctional families in two of Flannery O’Connor’s short stories. The author shows that the portrayal of the modern family's fragmentation and the conflicts arising from generational differences cause big problems. The paper highlights how O’Connor’s characters reflect the violence and tension of American life, with a particular focus on the struggles of individuals against a society that fragments social roles. The study gives a good analysis of the characters, their motivations, and the social backdrop against which they are set. It gives in particular a lot of attention to “Good Country People,” which will help with this paper, as that is one of the main focuses. Basically, it helps to make sense of the dysfunction that is seen in “Good Country People,” but the same ideas certainly apply to “Everything That Rises.”