Synopses & Reviews
These new critical essays on Wise Blood, Flannery O'Connor's explosive first novel, not only question our understanding of the "Southern Gothic," but launch a new inquiry into the nature and history of O'Connor's critical reputation. Perceived as a "classic" American writer despite the double setbacks of being a woman and a twentieth-century author, O'Connor continues to speak with striking clarity and disturbing vision to successive generations.
Review
"This reader is grateful to Michael Kreyling for offering a new critical collection which recognizes that Wise Blood is an even stranger novel that I had thought in 1962. This collection will be invaluable for future study of the novel and of Flannery O'Connor the novelist." The Southern Quarterly
Review
"This collection offers a surprising array of critical assessments with many enticing concepts to explore. This series of essyas on Wise Blood certainly fulfills..." Floyd Barnett, Mississippi Quarterly
Synopsis
Four essays which use new approaches to explore this familiar work of a 'classic' American author.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction Michael Kreyling; 2. A fondness for supermarkets: Wise Blood and consumer culture Jon Lance Bacon; 3. Framed in the gaze: haze, Wise Blood and Lacanian reading James Mellard; 4. 'Jesus stab me in the heart!': Wise Blood wounding and sacramental aesthetics Robert H. Brinkmeyer Jr; 5. The woman without any bones: anti-angel aggression in Wise Blood Patricia Smith Yeager; Notes.