Abstract
This essay follows the interpretive clues given by Flannery O'Connor in her lectures and personal letters to elucidate the sacramental quality of her art. More specifically, it demonstrates the functional use of violence in her art as a strategy for displacing her readers and opening them to the invitations and demands of God's grace. The essay includes a meditation on O'Connor's story “Good Country People” as a particular example of this strategy. By adverting to O'Connor's lectures and letters, the contemporary reader may encounter the sacramental quality of her art more readily than did her original readers.
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