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These ten essays, seven of which are previously unpublished, reflect the broadening of critical approaches to Flannery O'Connor's work over the past decade. The essays offer both new directions for, and new insights into, reading O'Connor's fiction. Some essays probe issues that, until recently, had been ignored. Others reshape long-standing debates in light of new critical insights from gender studies, rhetorical theory, dialogism, and psychoanalysis. Topics discussed include O'Connor's early stories, her canonical status, the phenomenon of doubling, the feminist undertones of her stories' grotesqueries, and her self-denial in life and art. Commentary on O'Connor has most often centered on her regional realism and the poetics of her Catholicism. By regarding O'Connor as a major American writer and focusing on the variety of critical approaches that might be taken to her work, these essays dispel the earlier geographic and religious stereotypes and point out new avenues of study.
These ten essays, seven of which are previously unpublished, reflect the broadening of critical approaches to Flannery O'Connor's work over the past decade. The essays offer both new directions for, and new insights into, reading O'Connor's fiction. Some essays probe issues that, until recently, had been ignored. Others reshape long-standing debates in light of new critical insights from gender studies, rhetorical theory, dialogism, and psychoanalysis. Topics discussed include O'Connor's early stories, her canonical status, the phenomenon of doubling, the feminist undertones of her stories' grotesqueries, and her self-denial in life and art. Commentary on O'Connor has most often centered on her regional realism and the poetics of her Catholicism. By regarding O'Connor as a major American writer and focusing on the variety of critical approaches that might be taken to her work, these essays dispel the earlier geographic and religious stereotypes and point out new avenues of study.
Sura P. Rath (Editor)
SURA P. RATH is a professor of English, and department chair, at
Louisiana State University, Shreveport.
Mary Neff Shaw (Editor)
MARY NEFF SHAW is an assistant professor of English at Louisiana
State University, Shreveport.
An impressive piece of scholarship, with an abundance of
informative notes. Asals' assertions are invariably provocative,
and the essentially severe view of O'Connor is a valuable
corrective to the sentimentalized Christian humanist
theory.--American Literature
Asals's study is an investigation of the dynamics of O'Connor's
imagination, and as such it is one of the most complex,
challenging, and intellectually exciting studies of her work yet to
appear. . . . A superb and penetrating analysis.--Flannery O'Connor
Bulletin
The best book yet written on Flannery O'Connor, not only scholarly,
useful, and intelligent, but written with a clarity and grace rare
in critical prose. It is an impressive achievement.--Modern Fiction
Studies
To my taste, the most impressive book [of O'Connor criticism]
published to date. . . . Asals is especially helpful because,
unlike the horde of critics who expound a static deductive vision
on O'Connor's part, he traces her growth toward the relative
serenity of her later work.--New York Review of Books
An impressive piece of scholarship, with an abundance of
informative notes. Asals' assertions are invariably provocative,
and the essentially severe view of O'Connor is a valuable
corrective to the sentimentalized Christian humanist
theory.--"American Literature"
Asals's study is an investigation of the dynamics of O'Connor's
imagination, and as such it is one of the most complex,
challenging, and intellectually exciting studies of her work yet to
appear. . . . A superb and penetrating analysis.--"Flannery
O'Connor Bulletin"
The best book yet written on Flannery O'Connor, not only scholarly,
useful, and intelligent, but written with a clarity and grace rare
in critical prose. It is an impressive achievement.--"Modern
Fiction Studies"
To my taste, the most impressive book [of O'Connor criticism]
published to date. . . . Asals is especially helpful because,
unlike the horde of critics who expound a static deductive vision
on O'Connor's part, he traces her growth toward the relative
serenity of her later work.--"New York Review of Books"
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