On The Two Worlds In Flannery O'Connor's Southern Farm Stories

Flannery O'Connor(1925-1964),one of the most gifted and prestigious American female writers in the mid-20th century,left in her short life an amazing literature inheritance involving two novels and 31 short stories.Compared with the growing and blossoming western scholarship on O'Connor,academic interest in her and her works in China isobviously lacking in quantity and quality.By close reading,this thesis attempts to analyze O'Connor's six Southern farm stories from the perspective of the secular world,the sacred world and the overlapping grotesque.Apart from the delineation of an authentic and gritty South during her lifetime,O'Connor's works transcend the mere reality to a metaphysical level which is preoccupied with grace,the Bible and religious faith.The interaction between the two worlds,such as juxtaposition,equalization and confrontation,leads directly to the grotesque.The secular world and the sacred world complement each other so that,only when taken together,they present a complete picture of O'Connor's world vision.The author hopes this thesis can offer a new angle to O'Connor scholarship and contribute modestly to the population of her great literature in China.