‘To the hard of hearing you shout, and for the almost blind you draw large and startling figures.’
–Flannery O’Connor, Mystery and Manners
Drowning in a river, the violent murder of a grandmother in the backwoods of Georgia, and the trans-genital display of a freak at a carnival show are all shocking literary devices used by Flannery O’Connnor, one of American literature’s best pulp fiction writers. More than thirty-five years after her death, readers are still shocked by O’Connor’s grotesque images. Dr. Jill Baumgaertner concentrates on O’Connor’s use of emblems, those moments of sudden and horrid illumination when the sacred and the profane merge as sacrament. This readable volume is ideal for college students, O’Connor scholars, or those wishing to better understand southern gothic fiction.
About the author
Jill Pelaez Baumgaertner is Professor of English and Dean of Humanities and Theological Studies at Wheaton College. She is the author of four previous collections of poems, a poetry textbook, and Flannery O’Connor: A Proper Scaring. She edited the collection Imago Dei: Poems from Christianity and Literature and serves as poetry editor of The Christian Century.
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