Nightmares and Visions: Flannery O'Connor and the Catholic Grotesque - Hardcover

Gilbert H. Muller

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0820302848 ISBN 13: 9780820302843

Publisher: University of Georgia Press, 1982

Synopsis

This succinct and incisive study of Flannery O'Connor shows how the nature of her fiction can be understood within the converging contexts of orthodox Catholicism and the author's consistent and often brilliant use of the grotesque. The interrelation of these two traditions results in a mode which Gilbert Muller terms the Catholic grotesque - a phrase which serves to define and measure the structure and vision of Miss O'Connor's fictive universe. Beginning with a cogent analysis of the art of the grotesque, the book proceeds with an investigation of the absurd hero and his secular and theological dilemmas, to a scrutiny of the metaphorical voyage the protagonist typically embarks upon, to a carefully reasoned appraisal of the violence that surrounds and tempers the action. The final chapter offers a sensitive evaluation of the manner in which Flannery O'Connor confronted the chaos of her world, creating a religious hierarchy' of meaning to contain it. Throughout Nightmares and Visions Mr. Muller has written intelligently and persuasively on Miss O'Connor's individual stories and novels, and in his commentary he makes good use of her criticism. In its broadest implications the study touches upon the considerable significance of the grotesque in American literature. Above all the book provides convincing evidence of the unity of technique and vision that made Flannery O'Connor the best southern writer of her generation and a unique writer of our time.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Georgia Press
• Publication date: 1982
• ISBN 10: 0820302848
• ISBN 13: 9780820302843
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 134