FLANNERY O’CONNOR

The constant realism of the South

BIOGRAPHY

Mary flannery O’connor (Savannah, Georgia, USA,1925- 1964) was an American novelist, short-story writer and essayist. An important voice in American literature, O’connor wrote two novels and 32 short stories, as well as a number or reviews and commentaries. She was a Southern writer who often wrote in a Southern Gothic style and relied heavily on regional settings and grotesque characters. Her writings also reflected her own Catholic faith and frequently examined questions of morality and ethics.

WORKS

Novels• Wise Blood, 1952 • The Violent Bear it Away, 1960 Short story collections• A Good Man Is Hard to Find, 1955 • Everything That Rises Must Converge, 1965 • The Complete Stories, 1971 Other works• Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose, 1969 • The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O'Connor, 1979 • The Presence of Grace: and Other Book Reviews, 1983 • Flannery O'Connor: Collected Works, 1988

CAREER

-Her texts take place in the South and revolve around morally ill characters

-She was interested in showing the Christian side of realism

-Her works analysed the problem of race in the South and the Holocaust

-She was the first fiction woman writer in the 20 C. to be published by the Library of America

A Good Man is Hard to Find (1955)

The grandmother didn't want to go to Florida. She wanted to visit some of her connections in East Tennessee and she was seizing at every chance to change Bailey's mind. Bailey was the son she lived with, her only boy. He was sitting on the edge of his chair at the table, bent over the orange sports section of the Journal. "Now look here, Bailey," she said, "see here, read this," and she stood with one hand on her thin hip and the other rattling the newspaper at his bald head.

Reading Comprehension

Answer the following questions:

1. Where did the grandmother want to travel?

2. How many children did she have?

3. What was the boy doing at that moment?

4. Can you tell her physical appearance from the text?

VOCABULARY

TRANSLATE THE FOLLOWING WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS

*connections*change one’s mind (v)*bend over (v)*hip*rattle (v)*bald

GRAMMAR

*REPORTED SPEECH

‘Now look here, Bailey,’she said, ‘see here, read this’

*PASSIVE VOICE

She rattled the newspaper at his bald head

*IRREGULAR VERBS

Locate the irregular forms of the verbs

Women Writers of the South

Kate Chopin (1850-1904)Caroline Gordon (1895-1981)Katherine Anne Porter (1890-1980)Eudora Welty (1909-2001)Ellen Glasgow (1873-1945)Carson McCullers (1917-1967)Mary Hood (1946-)Anne Rice (1941)