RADICAL AMBIVALENCE: RACE IN FLANNERY O'CONNOR Angela Gina O'Donnell A

200 Pages·2017·1.01 MB·English

by  Fordham University

RADICAL AMBIVALENCE:
RACE IN FLANNERY O’CONNOR

Angela Gina O’Donnell

A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the
Department of English and Comparative Literature

Chapel Hill
2018

Approved by:
Joseph Viscomi
Richard Giannone
Susan Srigley
Joseph Flora
Heidi Kim
© 2018
Angela Alaimo O’Donnell
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

ii
ABSTRACT
Angela Alaimo O’Donnell: Radical Ambivalence: Race in Flannery O’Connor
(Under the Direction of Joseph Viscomi and Richard Giannone)

This dissertation explores Flannery O’Connor’s complex attitude towards race in her
fiction and correspondence. O’Connor lived and did most of her writing in her native Georgia
during the tumultuous years of the Civil Rights movement. In one of her letters, O’Connor
frankly expresses her double-mindedness regarding the social and political upheaval taking place
in the U.S. with regard to race: “I hope that to be of two minds about some things is not to be
neutral” (The Habit of Being 218). Examination of her correspondence, including unpublished
letters, demonstrates that though O’Connor likely subscribed to the idea of racial equality, she
was wary of desegregation, fearing the erosion of Southern culture and the disappearance of the
code of manners that governed the relationships between African Americans and whites. This
double-mindedness also manifests itself in O’Connor’s fiction. Drawing on Critical Race Theory
and whiteness studies, Chapter One analyzes the ways in which O’Connor critiques the unjust
racial practices of the South in her stories and other writings, yet unconsciously upholds them.
Chapter Two explores O’Connor’s ambivalence with regard to contemporary politics, analyzes
her use of derogatory language to describe African Americans, and assesses the inconsistencies
in her discussion of race in the stories and letters in light of speech act-theory. Chapter Three
explores the influence of theology and Catholicism on O’Connor’s attitudes, arguing that
O’Connor’s radically theological vision and formation in a segregated Church shaped her ideas
about race. Chapter Four takes its cue from Toni Morrison’s Playing in the Dark and
demonstrates the complex role played by “Africanist” presence, represented by powerful black
iii
bodies, in the construction of white consciousness in O’Connor’s stories. Chapter Five explores
the theme of thwarted communion between the races that preoccupies O’Connor in her fiction
and correspondence. The study concludes that O’Connor’s race-haunted writing serves as the
literary incarnation of her uncertainty about the great question of her era and of her urgent need,
despite considerable reluctance, to address the fraught relationship between the races.

iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
It is a commonplace that all biographers and literary critics stand on the shoulders of
those who have come before them, and this is certainly true of my experience in writing this
dissertation. A quick glance at my Works Cited page indicates the number of writers and
scholars I have relied on in arriving at some understanding of Flannery O’Connor’s complex
attitudes towards race. I am beholden to many people and for many different reasons—for
insight, for information, and for inspiration. A list of the debts I owe would be long, but perhaps
I can offer, at least, a brief version of that accounting.
I’m grateful, first and foremost, to Sally Fitzgerald for her foundational work in editing
O’Connor’s letters, which have enabled several generations of scholars to hear O’Connor tell the
story of her life and relay her most private thoughts in her own inimitable voice. The Habit of
Being has been my constant companion throughout this project, second only to my copy of
O’Connor’s Collected Stories, as a text I have read from each day and relied upon to ground the
study in O’Connor’s words. I’m also grateful for the work of the African American writers who
have provided a new lens through which I was able to look at O’Connor’s work, rendering
familiar material fresh, especially James Baldwin, Alice Walker, and Toni Morrison. Finally, I
want to express my gratitude to the great Flannery O’Connor scholars who have taught me how
to read her fiction, correspondence, and critical essays, including critics whose work I have
recently discovered, such as Doreen Fowler and Susan Srigley, to those whose books I have been
reading and rereading over my many years of teaching, studying, and writing about O’Connor,
especially Ralph Wood and Richard Giannone. It is my good fortune to have two of those
v
scholars on my dissertation committee, and I am grateful for the opportunity to continue learning
from them as we have labored together on this project.
I would not have been able to complete this project without the assistance of the good
people at the Special Collections at Georgia College and State University where O’Connor’s
letters, manuscripts, and memorabilia are housed. My special thanks go to Nancy Davis-Bray,
Associate Director for Special Collections, for her hours of attention while I was perusing the
letters exchanged between Flannery O’Connor and Maryat Lee. In addition, I am especially
grateful to have received an Ina Dillard Russell Library Research Grant to travel to Milledgeville
to conduct my research. The grant helped defray my expenses but, more important, gave me
confidence to go forward with what was then a new and somewhat daunting project. My thanks
also go to the archivists at the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, & Rare Book Library at
Emory University, especially Kathy Shoemaker, for their assistance during my visit to view the
letters exchanged between Flannery O’Connor and Elizabeth Hester and those exchanged
between Flannery and Maryat Lee. The hospitality and expert guidance I received from them
made for a productive as well as an enjoyable visit.
With regard to the materials I examined at these archives, I am deeply grateful to Louise
Florencourt, cousin to Flannery O’Connor, and Fr. Michael Garanzini, co-trustees of The Mary
Flannery O’Connor Trust, for permission to quote from these previously unpublished letters.
They have proven to be an invaluable resource in clarifying O’Connor’s complex attitudes about
race.
I’d like to express my deepest thanks to the members of my dissertation committee—
Joseph Flora, Heidi Kim, and Susan Srigley—and especially to my co-directors, Joe Viscomi and
Richard Giannone. Without Joe’s generous willingness to take on this unusual project written by
vi
an unusual student, and navigate the complex academic and bureaucratic system at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, this dissertation would not exist. The opportunity he
has afforded me to finish my degree at this late date in my professional life is a gift of
inestimable value. Because of Richard’s generous willingness to participate in this quixotic
endeavor and his tireless contributions of time and expertise, this dissertation is a better and a
richer study than it would be otherwise. I am blessed to call both men my mentors and friends.
As I am blessed in my mentors, I am also blessed in my colleagues. I am very grateful to
Christine Firer Hinze and Maria Terzulli, whom I am fortunate to work with at Fordham
University’s Curran Center for American Catholic Studies, for their support and encouragement
throughout this endeavor. Their willingness to carry an extra burden made it possible for me to
complete this project. In this, as in many other ways, their generosity abounds.
Finally, as ever, I am grateful to my husband, Brennan, for his friendship and support in
this, as in so many projects. We discovered Flannery O’Connor together as undergraduates and
fell in love with her work. As fellow academics and teachers, we have both read and taught
O’Connor’s stories for decades. She has been the topic of conversation at so many of our family
meals, she may as well have been there with us. His willingness to read and critique yet another
of my projects devoted to her work is a sign of his great patience and love, for which I am most
grateful of all.

vii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ……………………………………………………....................x
INTRODUCTION: TWO MINDS …………………………………………………………....1
The Unpublished Letters: A Fresh Resource ……………………………………….....5
The Critical Landscape ……………………………………………………………......8
Approach and Method ……………………………………………………………......11
CHAPTER 1: “WHITENESS VISIBLE”: CRITICAL RACE THEORY
AND O’CONNOR’S FICTION……………………………….……...............16

Critical Dissent ……………………………………………………………………….18

Beyond Black and White ……………………………………………………………..20

Blinded and Sighted by Whiteness …………………………………………………...29

From “The Geranium” to “Judgement Day” …………………………………............30

“Whiteness Visible” ……………………………………………………………….....43

CHAPTER 2: RACE, POLITICS, AND THE DOUBLE MIND:
FLANNERY’S CORRESPONDENCE VS. O’CONNOR’S FICTION ………..45

Early Depictions of Race: “The Barber,” “The Geranium,” “Wildcat,”
and “The Coat”………………………………………………………………………..49

Later Thoughts on Race: O’Connor’s Correspondence ………………………............61

“The Habit of Bigotry” and “The Protean N-word”.………………………………….67
.
Jack, Louise, Shot, and the “Locution of the South” …………………………………80

“Natural” vs. “Fictive” Discourse: “There Is a Crack in Everything” ………………..85

viii
CHAPTER 3: THEOLOGY, RELIGION, AND RACE: CONSTANT
CONVERSION AND THE BEGINNING OF VISION…...................................89

Incarnational, Anagogical, and Analogical: O’Connor’s Theological Vision ……….98

A White Church and a Slow Church ………………………………………………..103

The Idolatry of Racism ……………………………………………………………...110

Race and Revelation …………………………………………………………………113

CHAPTER 4: “AFRICANIST PRESENCE” AND THE ROLE OF BLACK BODIES.…..124

A Personal Perspective and a Physical Perspective ………………………………....127

Body, Race, and Being: A Catholic Perspective ………………………………….....129

Motherhood in Black and White: “Everything That Rises Must Converge” ……......131

The Triumph and Defeat of the Social Black Body: “The Artificial Nigger” ...…......141

Disruptive Black Bodies: “The Geranium” and “Judgement Day,” Reprise ..………154

The Destabilizing Presence of the Africanist Other ……………………………........158

CHAPTER 5: THE FAILURE AND PROMISE OF COMMUNION ……………..……….160

The Failure of Communion: “The Enduring Chill” ……………………………........167

A Vision of Communion: The Violent Bear It Away …………………………..…....173

Two Minds ………………………………………………………………………..…181

WORKS CITED ………………………………………………………………………….…184

ix
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
PUBLISHED PRIMARY WORKS
CS Flannery O’Connor, The Complete Stories
CW Flannery O’Connor, The Collected Works
HB Flannery O’Connor, The Habit of Being
MM Flannery O’Connor, Mystery and Manners

COLLECTIONS
Emory Flannery O’Connor Letters. Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives,
and Rare Book Library. Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia.
GSCU Flannery O’Connor Collection. Ina Dillard Russell Library.
Georgia College and State University, Milledgeville, Georgia.

x