Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

1991

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

October 2026

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

Pearce, Howard D.

Abstract

Flannery O'Connor's Catholicism assumes a transcendent reality to be manifest in the physical world. In her view, as in the essentialist phenomenology of Edmund Husserl, we must penetrate the surface of reality in order to find the principles and generalities that underlie it. The incarnational nature of O'Connor's fiction reflects this vision. Her grotesque imagery and her use of elements of Aristotelian dramatic form manifest this sense of Mystery in her fiction. Character is revealed through imagery and action. Finally, O'Connor's "reasonable use of the unreasonable" is based directly on Aristotelian "Surprise," which carries enough awe to jar the reader into an experience of the Mystery central to her vision.

Extent

52 p.

Comments

Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters|FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection|Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 1991.|Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters

Identifier

FADT14694

Format

pdf

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