The South and the Grotesque: Flannery O’Connor’s ‘Twisted’ Characters

Yıl 2020, Cilt: 8 Sayı: 4, 1207 - 1211, 24.08.2020

Abdullah Gökhan Tuğan F. Gül Koçsoy

https://doi.org/10.18506/anemon.614223

Öz

The objective of this article is to research the grotesque undertones of American South, investigate the grotesque characters in Flannery O’Connor’s (1925-1964) short fiction based on Wolfgang Kayser’s (1906-1960) typology and accordingly reveal their affinities with the phenomenon of violence. The distinctive qualities of the South infuse all aspects of southern literature that is mostly notable for its perennial emphasis upon the grotesque. As a significant southern writer, O’Connor also employs grotesque characters in her fiction. O’Connor’s characters emanate grotesque singularities in three different manners; corporeal malformation, intellectual incongruity and behavioural degeneration. These three motives for the grotesque are analyzed through three short stories in this article: “Parker’s Back,” “The Comforts of Home” and “The Partridge Festival.”

Anahtar Kelimeler

American South, The Grotesque, Wolfgang Kayser, Flannery O’Connor

Güney ve Grotesk: Flannery O’Connor’ın ‘Çarpık’ Karakterleri

Öz

Bu makalenin amacı Amerikan Güney’inin grotesk çağrışımlarını araştırmak, Wolfgang Kayser’in (1906-1960) tiplemeleri temelinde Flannery O’Connor’ın (1925-1964) kısa öykülerindeki grotesk karakterleri incelemek ve buna bağlı olarak bu karakterlerin şiddet olgusuyla ilişkilerini ortaya koymaktır. Güney’in kendine özgü özellikleri çoğunlukla sürekli olarak grotesk vurgusu yapmasıyla bilinen güney yazınının her alanına nüfuz etmiştir. Önemli bir güneyli yazar olarak O’Connor da kendi edebiyatında grotesk karakterlere yer vermiştir. O’Connor’ın karakterleri üç farklı şekilde grotesk özellik göstermektedirler; bedensel kusurluluk, düşünsel aykırılık ve davranışsal yozlaşma. Bu makalede, bahsi geçen üç grotesk kaynağı üç kısa öykü aracığıyla incelenmektedir: “Parker’s Back,” “The Comforts of Home” ve “The Partridge Festival.”

Anahtar Kelimeler

Amerikan Güneyi, Grotesk, Wolfgang Kayser, Flannery O’Connor

Kaynakça

• Crow, C. L. (2009). American Gothic. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. Freud, S. (1919). The Uncanny. (accessed: 12 June 2019), https://web.mit.edu/allanmc/www/freud1.pdf
• Gentry, M. B. (1986). Flannery O’Connor’s Religion of the Grotesque. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.
• Gordon, S. (2000). Flannery O’Connor: The Obedient Imagination. Athens: The University of Georgia Press.
• Hawkes, J. (1962). Flannery O’Connor’s Devil. The Sewanee Review, 70(3), 395-407. (accessed: 12 June 2019), https://www.jstor.org/stable/27540793
• Hendin, J. (1970). The World of Flannery O’Connor. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
• Kayser, W. (1963). The Grotesque in Art and Literature. Ulrich Weisstein (Trans.). New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company.
• Lindroth, J. R. (1984). A Consistency of Voice and Vision: O’Connor as Self-Critic. Religion & Literature, 16(2), 43-59. (accessed: 12 June 2019), https://www.jstor.org/stable/40059245
• Mikics, D. (2007). A New Handbook of Literary Terms. New Haven: Yale University Press.
• Morton, M. L. (1980). With Ground Teeth: A Study of Flannery O’Connor’s Women. Ph.D. Diss. LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 3531. (accessed: 12 June 2019), https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4530&context=gradschool_disstheses
• O’Connor, F. (1984). Mystery and Manners. Sally and Robert Fitzgerald (Ed.). London: Faber and Faber.
• O’Connor, F. (1990). The Complete Stories of Flannery O’Connor. London: Faber and Faber.
• Orvell, M. (1991). Flannery O’Connor: An Introduction. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.
• Paulson, S. M. (1988). Flannery O’Connor: A Study of the Short Fiction. Boston: Twayne Publishers.
• Rubenstein, R. (1996). House Mothers and Haunted Daughters: Shirley Jackson and Female Gothic. Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature, 15(2), 309-331. (accessed: 12 June 2019), https://www.jstor.org/stable/464139
• Schleifer, R. (1993). Rural Gothic: The Sublime Rhetoric of Flannery O’Connor. In: David Mogen, Scott P. Sanders, and Joanne B. Karpinski (Ed.), Frontier Gothic: Terror and Wonder at the Frontier in American Literature (p. 175-86). London: Associated University Presses.