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

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

LA LITERATURA GÓTICA LLEGA AL NUEVO SUR: INFLUENCIA Y REFORMULACIÓN DEL GÓTICO EN LA OBRA DE FLANNERY O'CONNOR, by José Manuel Correoso Rodenas (Madrid: Fundación Universitaria Española, 2020)

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QUESTÕES DE AUTORIA FEMININA NO CONTO “THE CROP”, DE FLANNERY O’CONNOR

O presente trabalho busca analisar “The Crop”(1947), ou “A colheita”(2008), um dos primeiros contos da carreira literária de Flannery O'Connor. Essa narrativa faz parte da dissertação de mestrado em escrita criativa de O’Connor e, curiosamente, desenvolve o tema da mulher escritora. Os esforços de Miss Willerton, a protagonista, em refletir sobre seu fazer literário são sempre interrompidos com preocupações cotidianas e mundanas. A função doméstica esperada da mulher sulista, mesmo no século XX, é sempre imposta e lembrada a Miss Willerton, e portanto, mesmo não sendo casada e não possuindo filhos, ela não consegue se libertar de seu papel de “anjo do lar” para se dedicar inteiramente à escrita. Outros empecilhos enfrentados pela protagonista são a falta de recursos financeiros (problema este comum a muitas escritoras e descrito por Virginia Woolf em Um teto todo seu) e sua falta de experiência de vida, já que até suas leituras são censuradas pela família. Desse modo, com base em Elaine Showalter (1986), Sarah Gordon (2003) e Virginia Woolf (2013), propomos analisar o conto em questão não apenas como uma narrativa irônica que debocha de uma aspirante a escritora que não consegue realmente produzir um texto, mas como uma representação dos principais problemas enfrentados pelas mulheres que almejavam a carreira literária em sociedades patriarcais e ocidentais.

Godsends

This is a reflection on the nature of revelation by means of the idea of the ‘godsend’. While seeming to be ordinary, this word carries communication of what is beyond the ordinary. A godsend suggests something like a chink or crack through which something is revealed—a kind of gap, or permeability, a porosity to a light that comes from a source beyond. In that gifted porosity is there an opening to revelation? Does the godsend say something about the surprise of revelation? In response I follow three steps: from word, to idea, to story. I begin by looking at the word and its etymology and consider what this implies. Then I look at the idea of revelation in connection with the claims of philosophical reason. Here my concern is to illuminate some theoretical considerations concerning reason and revelation, from the more reflective conceptual point of view, especially in relation to the modern sense of reason. Thirdly, I turn to story as true to the godsend, and I pay particular attention to a story that witnesses to a kind of fidelity to singularity, the story of Flannery O’Connor entitled ‘Revelation’.

Reescribir a Alice Munro: experimentos de lectura creativa con Flannery O’Connor, Ernest Hemingway, Julio Cortázar y Ana María Shua

Este libro surge del interés por indagar en las posibilidades creativas del estudio de una obra literaria. ¿Podemos dar cuenta de la comprensión de un relato a partir de la escritura de otro? En el Semillero de Narrativa y Hermenéutica Literaria de la Universidad EAFIT hicimos el ejercicio de creer que sí y nos embarcamos en el experimento de estudiar a Alice Munro mediante la propia confección de textos narrativos. Cada cuento leído de la autora canadiense dio lugar a otro cuento, escrito esta vez por un semillerista. Quisimos explorar un tipo de hipertexto adicional que se sumara a los ya clásicos metatextos de la reseña, el comentario hermenéutico, el artículo científico, y que, como ellos, fuera la materialización de una ganancia epistemológica a propósito del contacto con el texto semilla.

A Good Man is a Trickster to Find

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.

Introduction

The introduction contextualizes the current state of whiteness studies and southern literary studies and argues that considering these lines of criticism alongside one another results in a more complete understanding of the underlying assumptions that have been made about poor whites and those deemed 'white trash.' In addition to analysing the history of the term, the introduction considers recent developments in southern studies scholarship, especially ways in which scholars have sought to expand recent definitions of the term “South.” The chapter also discusses the history of whiteness studies and argues that increased attention to the attitudes that middle- and upper-class whites have had toward poor whites is a fruitful line of scholarship. Finally, the introduction provides an early focus on the works of Erskine Caldwell and Flannery O'Connor as representative authors who complicate ideas that whiteness is homogeneous and universal.