In this thesis, I trace the influence of French Symbolist poetry on the works of Flannery O’Connor. Many of O’Connor’s influences are well-known and documented, including Catholicism, the South, modern fiction, and her battle with lupus. However, I argue that Symbolism, via its influence on Modernist literature, is another major influence. In particular, I focus on several aspects of O’Connor’s writing: the recurrence of the same symbol across multiple works, the central location of symbols in several stories, the use of private symbols of the author’s invention, and use of symbol, rather than language, to convey transcendence. Aided by the scholarship of critics such as Richard Giannone, Laurence Porter, and Margaret Early Whitt, I argue that there is much in the aesthetic of Flannery O’Connor to suggest that her writing is, in part, a legacy of the French Symbolists.

In this paper, I am suggesting that instead of using a traditional definition of cosmopolitanism, such as “thinking and feeling beyond the nation” (Cheah and Robbins) or “pluralism” plus “fallibilism” (Appiah), we consider instead Yale theologian Miroslav Volf’s term “embrace” as the framework for expanding our understanding of cosmopolitanism. This term is linked to standard interpretations of cosmopolitanism through its emphasis on hybridity and openness, but it differs in its undeniably religious implications. By applying Volf’s theoretical framework to concrete literary examples – namely, Lev Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Il’ich and Flannery O’Connor’s “Greenleaf” – it becomes clear that Ivan Il'ich’s and Mrs. May’s identity-shaping (religious) encounters with the “Other” are an opening up – or hybridizing – of their identities. This paper concludes that in Volf’s view, and Tolstoy’s and O’Connor’s as well, religious affinity is an impetus and not a hindrance to cosmopolitanism. / text

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1991. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [209]-220).

Thesis (Th. M.)--Regent College, Vancouver, BC, 2002. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 120-125).

Resumo: Everything That Rises Must Converge de Flannery O'Connor foi publicado em 1965, ano posterior â sua morte. Embora-esta dissertação discuta como o título - extraído de uma afirmação de Teillard de Chardin - aplica-se -às nove histórias da coleção, seu principal objetivo é mostrar, através de exemplos tirados do texto, como o bem e o mal se manifestam em cada história. Esta análise textual baseia-se num sistema gradativo das virtudes e dos vícios (os sete pecados capitais) desenvolvido pelo teólogo e erudito medieval Grosseteste. A Parte I apresenta uma biografia, amplamente baseada nas cartas de Miss O'Connor publicadas recentemente, e uma perspectiva global da polêmica excessivamente acirrada à sua obra duradoura. As feições principais de sua arte são discutidas aqui: seu enfoque - como escritora católica - do sul protestante, o uso do grotesco, seu pendor para a violência, seu conceito de mal e de graça, sua falta de sentimento, e sua aparente falta de compaixão e de senso de beleza. A Parte II considera o conceito de mal de Miss O'Connor (tanto quanto de Teillard) e sua magua com uma sociedade tecnológica complacente que despreza os valores espirituais. No âmago da dissertação, a Parte III oferece múltiplos exemplos das formas do bem e do mal, como também do imagismo, na sinopse de cada história, e a Parte IV examina os motivos - o mal, o grotesco e a graça redentora. A Parte V discute a visão de Miss O1 Connor e o modo com que ela empregou o choque e o riso para contrapor ao torpor espiritual e para conscientizar o leitor de que o demoníaco pode levar ao sagrado. Escritora admiravelmente talentosa, com humor selvagem, ela odiava o mal, escarnecia dos intelectuais bombásticos, acreditava nas possibilidades da salvação sempiterna - e conservou até o fim um maravilhoso sentido e respeito pelo mistério.

No description available.

This thesis examines the way Flannery O'Connor's stories draw upon and transfigure various biblical texts. With sometimes shocking freedom, she twists open the original stories or references, reworking and redistributing their basic elements. Often reversing the polarity of the original stories, O'Connor's stories dramatize elements of biblical texts coming alive in different times and social settings and with quite different outcomes. At the same time, her stories still address many of the same issues as the biblical texts she transforms. This study focuses on three O'Connor stories: "A Good Man is Hard to Find," which reworks the story of the rich young ruler in Matthew 19, Mark 10, and Luke 18; "Parker's Back," which transforms elements of Moses' encounter with the burning bush in Exodus juxtaposed with Saul's conversion experience in Acts 9; and "Judgment Day," which interacts with portions of Paul's descriptions of the resurrection of the dead in 1 Corinthians 15. This study draws upon the work of theologically-oriented O'Connor scholars, as well as O'Connor's own letters and essays. I hope, through this approach, to open up a new way of responding to O'Connor's biblical echoes. / Master of Arts

No description available.

No description available.

Thesis (Th. M.)--Regent College, Vancouver, BC, 2002. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 120-125).