New Essays on Wise Blood (The American Novel) [Paperback]

Michael Kreyling (Editor)

Book Description

Series: The American Novel | Publication Date: January 27, 1995

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.

Editorial Reviews

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

"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

Book Description

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 as a "classic" American writer.

Product Details

• Paperback: 140 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (January 27, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521445744
• ISBN-13: 978-0521445740
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,444,421 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Introduction and four essays on O'Connor, each with "a distinct point of view," ..., August 1, 2008

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R. Neil Scott "Writer, Professor & User Servi... (Murfreesboro, TN USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: New Essays on Wise Blood (The American Novel) (Paperback)

Includes an "Introduction," by the editor, Michael Kreyling, and four "specifically commissioned" essays devoted to O'Connor's novel, Wise Blood.

States that the compilation is intended "to provide students of American literature and culture" with an introductory critical guide to this "widely read and studied" novel. Asserts that each essay is included to present readers with "a distinct point of view," and provide a "forum of interpretative methods and the best contemporary ideas" on this work.

In Michael Kreyling's, "Introduction," he argues that -- because critics "tend to read her [O'Connor] in the same predictable context" -- he wanted to collect and include essays that attempt "to open new ways of seeing and understanding the novel." Closes with an extensive bibliographic essay describing most of the book-length criticism related to O'Connor's life and work.

Jon Lance Bacon's contribution, "A Fondness for Supermarkets: Wise Blood and Consumer Culture," focuses on the affinity Bacon sees between the writings of Flannery O'Connor and Marshall McLuhan, discusses their use of "the imagery of body parts," the frequent appearance of salesmen in their works, and the application of their creative art to critique consumer culture. Concludes that O'Connor's work illustrates her view that America's consumer society would disappoint all who believe that a material product might bring self-realization.

James M. Mellard's, "Framed in the Gaze: Wise Blood and Lacanian Reading," reflects his view that -- even though many critics have questioned the integrity of the novel -- when "read within the framework of the post-Freudian psychoanalytic theory of Jacque Lacan," Wise Blood demonstrates that O'Connor's fictional instincts "are virtually flawless." Concludes with a discussion of ways "this modernist novel can speak to a postmodernist epoch."

Robert H. Brinkmeyer's, "'Jesus stab me in the heart!': Wise Blood, Wounding, and Sacramental Aesthetics," dissects the controversy regarding whether or not O'Connor effectively communicated her Christian vision in the novel. Refers to comments from early reviewers who focused on its "bizarre qualities," and compared and contrasted them to later readers who benefited from having read her letters, comments and essays, and came to view it as "a significant religious work."

Patricia Smith Yaeger, in "The Woman Without Any Bones: Anti-Angel Aggression in Wise Blood," suggests that while O'Connor adopts "a narrative voice that is confident, aesthetically pleasing, and deeply sadistic," and uses "characters who serve as foils for her voice," her fiction seems to assume a "textual schizophreia." Examines her attempt as a writer "to remain in the tomboyish role of the angel-aggressive little girl," and finds the technique to be "a brilliant fictional strategy." She then explores how this "rebellious infantilism" is worked out in Wise Blood through the use of "a child's pont of view" and concludes that while O'Connor does not represent "the portrait of an idealized femaile writer; she is someone more interesting, an angel-aggressive woman who uses her violent imagery and wicked sense of humor to change the balance of social power and create a new form of writing as anti-ritual."

R. Neil Scott / Middle Tennessee State University