OLLI0181 - The Incarnational Art of Flannery O’Connor

Course Description

In her essay titled “The Nature and Aim of Fiction,” the modern American literary-theologian Flannery O’Connor (1925–1964) states, “…fiction is hard if not impossible to write because fiction is so very much an incarnational art. …Fiction is about everything human and we are made out of dust, and if you scorn getting yourself dusty, then you shouldn’t try to write fiction. It’s not a grand enough job for you.” During this series, we shall read and discuss from O’Connor’s canon short stories in which she draws portraits of aspiring writers and who “scorn getting dusty” and whose preconceptions of writing are challenged by their encounters with the ‘flesh and blood’ of reality. The selections we shall study as representations of O’Connor’s incarnational artistry are: “The Crop,” “The Partridge Festival,” “The Enduring Chill,” and “Everything that Rises Must Converge”. This course will be recorded.