The "outlawed figures" of Flannery O'Connor and Frank O'Connor: Religion, Redemption and Rebellion in the Two Souths
The aim of this paper is to investigate the connections between the American South as represented by the fiction of Flannery O'Connor, and the Irish South epitomised in the work of Frank O'Connor. Both authors deal with comparable themes such as religion, rebellion, familial bonds, gossip, history and loneliness. Their hometowns were, in many respects, similar regarding their violent and controversial pasts and often stifling localness. This paper considers the outlawed figures wandering about the fringes" of their respective Souths and explores the possibility of a connection between both regions submerged population[s]" (The Lonely Voice 5). Does the dialectic nature of their literary exchange, particularly in relation to religion, create a new space from which we can appropriate and approach a possibly transnational, South"?The O'Connors use of religion and isolated characters is integral to their portrayal of their locales and as a result will be the main focus of this presentation. These stories explore for us how a young boy with an oedipal complex, a first confession, a woman gored by a bull, a Bible salesman stealing a girl's artificial leg, become universal events though they often occur in small, seemingly insignificant locations. As Patrick Kavanagh states in his poem, Epic," Gods make their own importance," and so it would seem in the case of the characters who inhabit these communal Souths.
In order to make this association it is necessary to examine the two Souths in habited by these writers; namely Georgia and Cork from a number of perspectives. In Seán Ó Faoláin's essay entitled, "William Faulkner: more genius than talent" he draws a comparison between the American South and Southern Ireland, & from what little I have seen of Mississippi and all I have read about it, life there sounds very much like life in County Cork." This paper will explore then how Flannery O'Connor and Frank O'Connor employ their respective, transnational Souths to inform the themes and imagery of religion and rebellion in their work, and how these visions can be utilised in a unique and revolutionary understanding of the South in a regional and global context.
Victoria Kennefick, University College Cork