Online Seminar Series: Flannery O’Connor

Online Seminar Series

The Work of Flannery O’Connor
Parker’s Back by O’Connor and
Question 94, Article 2 – Aquinas on Idolatry

Saturday, March 30, 2024

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Mary Flannery O’Connor (March 25, 1925 – August 3, 1964) was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist. She wrote two novels and 32 short stories, as well as a number of reviews and commentaries. Her writing is exquisite and reflects her Catholic faith and frequently examined questions of morality and ethics. She was a Southern writer who often wrote in a sardonic style and relied heavily on regional settings and troubling characters.

“Anything that comes out of the South is going to be called grotesque by the northern reader, unless it is grotesque, in which case it is going to be called realistic… The stories are hard but they are hard because there is nothing harder or less sentimental than Christian realism… When I see these stories described as horror stories I am always amused because the reviewer always has hold of the wrong horror.”

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Despite her secluded life, her writing reveals an an incredible grasp of human behavior. O’Connor gave many lectures on faith and literature, traveling quite far despite her frail health. Politically, she maintained a broadly progressive outlook in connection with her faith, voting for John F. Kennedy in 1960 and supporting the work of Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement. We invite you to join us as we read a collection of her work, meeting about about once per month online.

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March 30 Reading:

Parker’s Back

The Complete Stories – Farrar, Straus and Giroux; First edition (January 1971)

ISBN – 978-0374515362, and Question 94, Article 2 – Aquinas on Idolatry

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Schedule:

12:00-2:00PM PDT

Tutor:

Kevin Walker

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Location:

Online. Register to receive the link.