MelissaLupari

Anagogical Vision and Comedic Form in Flannery O’Connor: The Reasonable Use of the Unreasonable
By: Melissa Lupari

 What is Comic Vision?
o Comedic- means of or relating to comedy.
o Vision- the power of being able to see or use your imagination.
 What is Anagogical Vision?
o Anagogical- interpretation of a word, passage, or text (as of Scripture or poetry) that finds beyond the literal, allegorical, and moral senses a fourth and ultimate spiritual or mystical sense.
 How could Flannery O’Connor’s writings be described?
o Does Flannery O’Conner use a lot of Comedy in her writing or, is it more or less a word or a passage?
 Why do you think that Comedy has hinged on the work of Flannery O’Connor?
o Comedy has traditionally hinged on the ending of the work.
o Example: “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” at the beginning you may have laughed with laughter, but by the second half you sat in silence and were stunned by what you were reading. (Askin, 58)
o O’Connor uses comedic paradigm as we have seen in her writings, by developing plot, character, and the mode to her stories. She distances comedically, barring emotion and engaging on intellect. (Askin, 58-59)
o O’Connor also at times leaves the reader to struggle for “the point” making us wonder what happened, where the conclusion… is leaving us hanging. (Askin, 60)
My Paper…The Progress:
 Title: Finding what good there is in life and making a vision.
 Thesis Statement: In Flannery O’Connor “A Good Man Is Hard To Find and Other Short Stories,” we find two stories that focus in on one another in two vary diverse ways. O’Connor’s “The River and “Good Country People.” In These two stories we find that life is not always what it is made out to be. Sometimes some of us do not even try at all, never wondering or worrying about what vision will come to mind about life and the future.
 I have changed my Thesis Statement about three times each time I feel I am getting closer to what I want to say. The Focus of my paper is taking these two stories and looking into more of there vision. What are there similarities and how do they deferrer? At the time what was Flannery O’Connor thinking about in her writings, mood, etc.?