Southern gothic family in the works of Flannery O'Connor and Walker Percy

Abstract

The literature anthologized under the label "American Southern Gothic" should be described and a thorough definition of the term should be given before an examination of one aspect of Gothicism in selected works by Flannery O'Connor and Walker Percy. To do so, it is necessary to separate the two components of the term and define each of them individually, i.e. we must deal first with the concepts of "Southern literature" and "Gothic art," and only then present a comprehensive definition of the joint category. According to Veronica Makowsky, in its most basic sense Southern literature is writing about the South, but this definition, as Makowsky herself admits, has many complications and thus she presents a more satisfying, theme-based definition: "Topically, Southern writing can concern the South or a Southerner's experience elsewhere, but it can also include a Southerner's writing on a non-Southern topic from a non-Southern point of view.,,1 As the quotation makes clear, it is not at all easy to define the literature of the South concisely and completely. It is best to say that all Southern writers share a common nature; the fact that they were born and raised in a region so much stigmatized by its past, burdened by military and economic defeat, caused that the artists show a distinct affinity both in the...

Literatura Jihu je vyznamnou soucasti americke literarni sceny jiz od dob Edgara Allana Poea. Zam gotickeho romanu byl hojne vyuzivan od sameho zacatku, nebot' se mnoha autorum jevil jako nejvice vhodny pro vyjadfeni zvlastnosti jizanske spolecnosti a jejich konvenci. Goticno je soucasti svetove literatury od dob evropskeho Romantismu a jako takove ovlivnilo mladou americkou literaturu konce osmnacteho stoleti. Samo proslo hlubokym vyvojem behem tech necelych dvou stoleti, ktere dell Charlese Brockdena Browna, prvniho autora gotickeho romanu v Americe, od Flannery O'Connor a Walkera Percyho, dvou vyraznych postav povalecne jizanske literatury, jejichz prace je hlavnim tematem teto diplomove prace. Z tohoto duvodu je tfeba zaby-vat se nejprve puvodem a vy-vojem zamu gotiky v Evrope i ve Spojenych state ch nd je mozne pIne pochopit povidky O'Connor a Percyho romany. Tim se tedy zaby-vaji prvni tfi kapitoly prace, pocatky zamu v Anglii osmnacteho stoleti, jeho zacatky v Americe a vy-voj na Jihu. Kapitoly ctyfi a pet jsou venovany analyze prad dvou modernich spisovatelu, v jejichz dile se odrazi jak gotika, jak ji stvofil Horace Walpole v roce 1764, tak moderni pfistup k zamu i lite rami tvorbe jako takove. Hlavnim dIem analyzy povidek "Everything that Rises Must Converge," "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," "Good...