A Good Man is a Trickster to Find

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Taylor Tye
Keyword(s):  
Social Structure ◽  
Social Reform ◽  
American South ◽  
Flannery O'connor ◽  
Southern Gothic ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The American South ◽  
Over The Top ◽  
Traditional Storytelling

In my presentation, I will demonstrate the contrast between the pioneer of the Southern Grotesque, Flannery O’Connor, and her famous story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” with Taylor’s use of the gothic in his YA novel. O’Connor adapted her version of the gothic from her predecessors such as Shelley and Poe. But she veers away from the creation of a fantastical monster tradition of the Romantics to drive the focus of the “monstrous” to the very human but harmful behaviors of her characters. Similarly, Taylor’s narrative does away with the over-the-top fantasy of the Romantic tradition and instead chooses to set the narrative in a realistic space with relevant characters. The difference between O’Connor and Taylor is that in O’Connor’s Southern Gothic the setting is the pinnacle of her story while Taylor’s Indigeneity shines through with his humor, traditional storytelling, and orality in his narrative. Differences aside, it is clear that the motive of each text is a call for social reform in O’Connor’s criticism of the social structure of the American South and in Taylor’s criticism of colonization.

Class and Slavery

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Daniel Wells
Keyword(s):  
Social Structure ◽  
American South ◽  
Class Formation ◽  
Old South ◽  
Basic Assumptions ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The American South ◽  
Southern Society

This article reviews scholarship on class and slavery. The evolution of the historiography on class and slavery is complex, and historians have only recently begun to revisit some of their basic assumptions about class formation, class ideology, and the social structure of the Old South more broadly. New studies raise questions about the ways in which human bondage and class intertwined in slave societies, particularly the American South, and have initiated a discernible shift in the field. While scholars profitably continue to study the plantation and the lives of masters and slaves, many historians now call for a wider view of southern society to take account of life in the region outside the plantation, and the various ways in which different classes of whites interacted with, and were shaped by, the institution of slavery. It is with these new calls that the subject of class is enjoying resurgence.

Writing violence: John McGahern and Flannery O’Connor

John McGahern ◽  
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank McGuinness
Keyword(s):  
American South ◽  
Flannery O'connor ◽  
Male Violence ◽  
The American South ◽  
The Impact

This chapter looks in close detail at two stories, written by authors of very different background: ‘The Beginning of an Idea’ by John McGahern, a chronicler of mid to late 20th century rural Ireland, and ‘A Good Man is Hard to Find’ by Flannery O’Connor, a chronicler of the American South. The chapter traces what correspondence there might arise between these writers from Catholic backgrounds, and the impact faith has on their comprehension of male violence - rape in the Mc Gahern story, and murder in O’Connor’s. The chapter emphasizes what, spiritually and socially, connects and disconnects both authors, and shows how the two stories, diverse in style and approach, but sharing an underlying sense of brutality, illustrate their respective authors’ interest in human inclination for violence and evil.

“States of Rebellion”: Civil War, Rural Unrest, and the Agrarian Question in the American South and the Italian Mezzogiorno, 1861–1865

2005 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 403-432 ◽  
Author(s):  
Enrico Dal Lago
Keyword(s):  
American South ◽  
Class Conflict ◽  
Rural Setting ◽  
Formation Continue ◽  
Rural Workers ◽  
Agrarian Question ◽  
Peasant Society ◽  
The Social ◽  
The American South

To date, only a handful of scholars, most notably C.L.R. James and Eugene Genovese, have seen slave rebellions and peasant revolts as having anything in common. Fewer scholars still would be prepared to accept the assumption that slaves and peasants were agrarian working classes that shared significant characteristics. Yet, the issues of rural unrest and class formation continue to haunt the historiography of both slave and peasant societies long after James' and Genovese's studies, and have forced several historians to revise and broaden their definitions of class conflict as a means to describe the social transformations of several rural regions. In this essay, I focus on the American South as a case study of a slave society and on the Italian South, or Mezzogiorno, as a case study of a peasant society. Notwithstanding the fundamental differences between the social structures of these two regions, in both cases debates on the class character of rural workers began when leftist historians raised the possibility of applying Marxist categories to their particular historical conditions. In both cases, they were dealing with a ‘south’ characterized by a preeminently agricultural economy and a persistent social and political conservatism. In both cases, too, the debate has moved from broad theoretical positions to the explanation of specific instances of class conflict in a rural setting—the slaves' resistance to their masters and the peasants' resistance to their landlords, respectively—and then on to a criticism of the Marxist approach to the problem.

Some Thoughts on ‘Hereditary’ and ‘Proprietary’ Rights in Land under Customary Law in Thirteenth and Early Fourteenth Century England

1983 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. M. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Social Structure ◽  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Customary Law ◽  
Current State ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Difference ◽  
State Of Research ◽  
Customary Land ◽  
Rural England

A recent polemical essay by Alan Macfarlane constructed a picture of the social structure of medieval rural England premised on the notion that there was little difference in the nature of family attachment to land between freeholders and those who held their property ‘according to the customs of the manor.’ This essay has received severe criticism from R. H. Hilton, who argues that it ‘ignores the implications of the considerable predominance in many areas of customary land held in villein (i.e. servile) tenure, attempting to assimilate it to freehold as though it were equivalent to sixteenth century copyhold.’ The scale of the difference between these two positions may be attributed to the current state of research into the operation of customary law and its tribunals.

Intersubjektive Sinnkonstitution und Sozialstruktur Zur Kritik handlungstheoretischer Ansätze der Soziologie / The constitution of meaning by subjects and the social structure On the critique of action-concepts in sociology

1978 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Johannes Berger
Keyword(s):  
Social Structure ◽  
Concept Formation ◽  
The Other ◽  
Action Pattern ◽  
Basic Term ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The One ◽  
Mode Of Production ◽  
The Way

AbstractIn contrast to the usual attempts to attach the difference between an action-theoretical sociology and MARX’s theory on divergent themes and interests, this paper is searching for the decisive distinction of both approaches in the way of concept formation. Here the important question is if and where the perception of actors is entering the concepts of sociology. The diverse answer to this question leads to two concepts of social structure : to normatively supported action pattern on the one hand, to a mode of production on the other.Finally, the formation of a sociological basic term, orientated on the idea of modes of production, is shown by the example of the class concept.

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Slusser
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
San Diego ◽  
American South ◽  
Military Family ◽  
University Of California ◽  
Cultural Issues ◽  
Distinguished Career ◽  
The Social ◽  
The American South ◽  
The University

This book explores the life and work of Gregory Benford. Born in 1941 in Mobile, Alabama, Benford has strong roots in the American South. But as member of a military family, he spent much of his adolescence in other countries such as Germany and Japan. In the process he developed a cosmopolitan perspective, which gave rise to a lifelong fascination with “alien” cultures. Benford earned a doctorate in physics at the University of California, San Diego, and received his PhD in 1967. This book examines Benford's distinguished career as science fiction writer as well as his ideas on science and scientists “doing science,” the writing of science fiction, and the social and cultural issues raised by science. It also considers Benford's literary production in terms of its main categories.

scholarly journals The management of border disputes in African regional sub-systems: comparing West Africa and the Horn of Africa

2002 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 369-393 ◽  
Author(s):  
Markus Kornprobst
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
West Africa ◽  
Conflict Management ◽  
Social Structure ◽  
Horn Of Africa ◽  
Territorial Integrity ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Level Of Analysis

In Africa, the management of border disputes varies from sub-region to sub-region. Most puzzling is the difference between West Africa and the Horn of Africa. In the latter, border disputes are much more likely to escalate into war than in the former. Seeking to solve this puzzle, this study focuses on the territorial integrity norm. It departs from existing accounts of this norm in two ways: first, it does not choose the region but the sub-region as the level of analysis. Second, it does not isolate the territorial integrity norm from its social context but analyses the interplay of the norm with the social structure in which it is embedded. It concludes that the territorial integrity norm in West Africa is part of a social structure different from that in the Horn of Africa. It is this difference that explains the different patterns of conflict management in the two sub-regions.

scholarly journals THE POWER OF THE DISABLED: FLANNERY O'CONNOR’S “THE LAME SHALL ENTER FIRST”

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (88) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Disability Studies ◽  
American South ◽  
The Other ◽  
Flannery O'connor ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
Disabled People ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Evil Nature ◽  
The Disabled ◽  
The American South

Flannery O'Connor’s (1925-1964) "The Lame Shall Enter First" (1962) deals with three characters: Sheppard, a widower, his son Norton, a ten years old boy and Rufus, a miscreant teenager, whom Norton dislikes. Rufus has a clubfoot, is very intelligent and fond of violence. Sheppard is a philanthropist and likes to help Rufus inviting him to live with them, contrary to Norton’s wishes. In fact, Rufus despises Sheppard, resists help and is aware of his own evil nature. He makes Sheppard embarrassed and causes Norton’s death deliberately, leaving both of them as victims. O’Connor in this context, de/reconstructs the prejudice against the disabled people; in the American South the disabled are regarded as evil characters. On the other hand, although it is generally accepted that the disabled people are good, she shows them as ordinary people having both good and wicked sides. Moreover, they may refuse help and prove personality despite the fact that non-disabled people are inclined or regard it duty to help them. She problematizes the disabled body as ‘the other/marginalized’ being pitiful and pitied. Thus, it becomes clear that O’Connor acknowledges the disabled people as normal as the non-disabled, or powerful, not physically but spiritually and intellectually. The tenets of ‘Disability Studies’ are insightful to discuss the work. Keywords: Flannery O'Connor, "The Lame Shall Enter First", “Disability Studies”, American South

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