Intro to Literary Study (2005)


28 Jan 2005
Askin (article on O'Connor)

Askin, Denise T. "Anagogical Vision and Comedic Form in Flannery O'Connor: The Reasonable Use of the Unreasonable." Renascence 57.1 (2004): 57.1. 16p. Academic Search Elite EBSCOHost. Seton Hill U. Reeves Lib. 24 Jan 2005. <http://search.epnet.com>.

Link supplied by EBSCOHost: http://reeveslib.setonhill.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=afh&an=15481077&loginpage=login.asp

Get your dictionary ready...

O'Connor's graceless characters are both quintessentially comic and perfectly anagogical. A good Thomist, O'Connor defines evil as the absence of grace. It makes sense, then, that her characters are distorted to the degree that they lack grace... vital. If grace is, as she says, what gives life to the soul (Mystery and Manners 204), her rigid 'grotesques' serve to define that grace precisely by showing the effects of its absence. (53)
One need not have read much of Flannery O'Connor to realize that her endings do not fit the comedic paradigm. She described the reaction to her reading of 'A Good Man Is Hard to Eind.' The listeners roared with laughter for the first half, and sat in stunned silence for the second half. The trajectory of her plots consistently departs from the comedic contract with the audience, the serene expectation of a happy ending. O'Connor appropriates the comedic paradigm as we have seen, in developing plot, character, and mode in her stories. She distances the action comedically, barring emotion and engaging the intellect. (58-59)
Traditional comedy is marked by circularity. By connecting the mythos of spring with the genre of comedy, Frye emphasizes the cyclic structure of comedic action. The comedic plot and its resolution replicate the seasonal circularity of the death of the old god/order succeeded by the birth of the new order/resurrection in new life and fertility. The resolution brings lovers together, and restores the harmony of the community. Both the perennial cycle of nature and comedic endings are therefore comfortably predictable. O'Connor's plots, however, are linear, not cyclic. Their conclusions, rather than coming full circle to restored harmony, remain open-ended. Her characters are free to say "no" with their last breath. (59)
Trackbacks
Trackback Link: http://blogs.setonhill.edu/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1183
EBSCO Host Article: O'Connor
Excerpt: EBSCO: O'Connor Article Asn....
Weblog: Roamer's Zone
Tracked: January 28, 2005 12:08 PM
http://blogs.setonhill.edu/MoiraRichardson/007093.html
Excerpt: The thing I found strangest about Askin's article, article on Flannery O'Connor was probably the repeated mention of humor. Now, I don't know about you but a whole family being shot and killed by an escaped convict is, well, not...
Weblog: Literary Tease
Tracked: January 29, 2005 02:40 PM
It Didn't Make Me Laugh
Excerpt: Apparently Denis T. Askin does not understand comedy. Someone needs to rent her some funny movies and fast so she can learn about it because she finds comedy in Flannery O’Conner’s stories. Perhaps she has a different meaning of the...
Weblog: Special K
Tracked: January 29, 2005 10:55 PM
London Vs. O'Conner - EL 150
Excerpt: This academic article discusses the idea of free indirect discourse - granting the author the power of "omniscient powers of observation". The main character becomes transparent then and the author can enter the minds of other characters, as in "To...
Weblog: Literary Tease
Tracked: January 30, 2005 10:06 AM
Building a Fire on a Good Man
Excerpt: I will admit; I had trouble understanding the article on Jack London's The Call of the Wild. For a few reasons: 1. There was much unexplained psychological jargon. I feel embarassed being a former psych major and not understanding a...
Weblog: Color in a Lurid World
Tracked: January 30, 2005 02:46 PM
Academic Article by Askin
Excerpt: Askin talks alot about the comedic form used by Flannery O'Conner in her works. I found this surprising because the one we read in class, A Good Man is Hard to Find, there was nothing funny about it. There wasn't...
Weblog: KristenBergstein
Tracked: January 31, 2005 10:22 AM
Comedic Detachment
Excerpt: Denise Askin's academic article on Flannery O'Connor's work in the realm of comedic literature made some good and interesting points about her style, but it also argued that "she distances the action comedically, barring emotion and engaging the intell...
Weblog: Below Zero
Tracked: January 31, 2005 12:24 PM
More catching up...
Excerpt: Bear with me, ok? Anyway, this will go back even further to discuss Denise T. Askin's "Anagogical Vision and Comedic Form in Flannery O'Connor: The Reasonable Use of the Unreasonable" and Donald E. Pease's "Pychoanalyzing the Narrative Logics of Natura...
Weblog: She Never Could Decide
Tracked: March 2, 2005 04:15 PM
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Comments

Remember, folks, this article is assigned reading, too!

Posted by: Dennis G. Jerz at January 28, 2005 12:28 AM

I am actually a student of Denise Askin's and I have also read the short story "A Good Man is Hard to Find", if the reader looks at the obvious foreshadowing and the dialogue by The Misfit and the characters, humor can definitely be seen.

Posted by: Nicole at February 16, 2005 09:09 PM
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