Embodied Vision: Sublimity and Mystery in the Fiction of Flannery O’Connor

This thesis serves as a study of representative pieces of Flannery O’Connor’s fiction alongside three particular theories of the sublime, and offers an exploration of the ways in which O’Connor employs and modifies and aesthetics of sublimity throughout her fiction. Three particular theories of the sublime are considered throughout this study: Edmund Burke’s empiricist sublime, Jean-François Lyotard’s postmodern sublime, and Frederick Christian Bauerschmidt’s theological sublime. Burke’s theory is considered alongside both the early O’Connor story “The Turkey” and the later “Greenleaf,” while the story “Parker’s Back” is read in light of Lyotard’s theory and the novel The Violent Bear It Away alongside Bauerschmidt’s theory. The readings of each of these fictional texts exhibit both their affinities for the accompanying theories of the sublime and the points at which O’Connor’s literary vision departs from these aesthetic theories. O’Connor’s own theological commitments and artistic choices present complications in considering her work alongside these theories of sublimity, and these complications echo and illuminate several recurring issues within the critical conversation concerning her work. This study finds that O’Connor’s texts offer neither the egotism and biological determinism of Burke’s theory nor the complete indeterminate freedom of Lyotard’s theory, nor even the clearly-defined recovery stage of Bauerschmidt’s theory. Instead, O’Connor charges her sublime drama with intimations of theological revelation, bringing the reader to a critical point that necessitates an interpretive choice.