The Critical Reception of Flannery O'Connor, 1952-2017: "Searchers And Discoverers" Hardcover

New

Robert C. Evans

Flannery O'Connor is one of the most widely read, discussed, and taught of all American authors. She is immensely popular with students, general readers, and literary critics. Her work, often characterized as "Southern Gothic," betrays in its focus on morality her devout Roman Catholic faith even as it displays a wicked sense of humor. She has been the subject of numerous articles and books, and indeed an entire journal devoted to her writings has existed for decades. There is not, however, any chronological overview of the history of O'Connor criticism. The present volume fills that very conspicuous gap. It is the sort of book that practically every college and university library, as well as many public libraries, will need to own, and it will appeal not only to scholars and students but to non-academic readers of O'Connor, whose numbers are legion. A particular value of the book is that it synthesizes criticism and commentary that is now only available in individual essays that are widely scattered.

9781571139436

English

Boydell & Brewer Ltd

01-May-18

280

Robert C. Evans is Professor of English at Auburn University Montgomery. Among his many books is Critical Insights: Short Fiction of Flannery O'Connor (2016).

[I]mpressive . . . . [W]ill be useful to many students and to the teachers who help them. Scholars, too, will find the book quite helpful in terms of suggesting important articles they have missed. . . . On the whole, and in less than three hundred pages, Evans has done a very good job of surveying the major issues in O'Connor studies and of suggesting what is now worth researching. RESOURCES FOR AMERICAN LITERARY STUDY A key source on O'Connor, this volume markedly advances the critical literature on this remarkable writer. CHOICE The main annotated bibliographies summarizing O'Connor criticism give her novels short shrift. To address this oversight, this study centers on the eighty major critical monographs and essay collections about the Southern Catholic author. Organized both chronologically and topically, the book covers such themes as aesthetics, religion, historical contexts, the South, race, and gender. AMERICAN LITERATURE