Distorted traditions: The use of the grotesque in the short fiction of ...

DISTORTED TRADITIONS: THE USE OF THE GROTESQUE IN THE SHORT FICTION

OF EUDORA WELTY, CARSON MCCULLERS, FLANNERY O¡¯CONNOR

AND BOBBIE ANN MASON

Carol A. Marion, B.A., M.A.

Dissertation Prepared for the Degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS

August 2004

APPROVED:

James Baird, Major Professor

James T. F. Tanner, Minor Professor and Chair of

the Department of English

Timothy Parrish, Committee Member

Sandra L. Terrell, Dean of the Robert B. Toulouse

School of Graduate Studies

Marion, Carol A., Distorted traditions: The use of the grotesque in the short fiction of Eudora

Welty, Carson McCullers, Flannery O¡¯Connor, and Bobbie Ann Mason. Doctor of Philosophy

(English), August 2004, 169 pp., references, 151 titles.

This dissertation argues that the four writers named above use the grotesque to illustrate the

increasingly peculiar consequences of the assault of modernity on traditional Southern culture. The

basic conflict between the views of Bakhtin and Kayser provides the foundation for defining the

grotesque herein, and Geoffrey Harpham¡¯s concept of ¡°margins¡± helps to define interior and exterior

areas for the discussion.

Chapter 1 lays a foundation for why the South is different from other regions of America,

emphasizing the influences of Anglo-Saxon culture and traditions brought to these shores by the

English gentlemen who settled the earliest tidewater colonies as well as the later influx of Scots-Irish

immigrants (the Celtic-Southern thesis) who settled the Piedmont and mountain regions. This

chapter also notes that part of the South¡¯s peculiarity derives from the cultural conflicts inherent

between these two groups. Chapters 2 through 5 analyze selected short fiction from each of these

respective authors and offer readings that explain how the grotesque relates to the drastic social

changes taking place over the half-century represented by these authors. Chapter 6 offers an

evaluation of how and why such traditions might be preserved.

The overall argument suggests that traditional Southern culture grows out of four

foundations, i. e., devotion to one¡¯s community, devotion to one¡¯s family, devotion to God, and love

of place. As increasing modernization and homogenization impact the South, these cultural

foundations have been systematically replaced by unsatisfactory or confusing substitutes, thereby

generating something arguably grotesque. Through this exchange, the grotesque has moved from the

observably physical, as shown in the earlier works discussed, to something internalized that is

ultimately depicted through a kind of intellectual if not physical stasis, as shown through the later

works.

Copyright 2004

by

Carol A. Marion

ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

Chapter

1. DISTORTED TRADITIONS¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­1

2. EUDORA WELTY: THE SOUTHERN COMMUNITY¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­...47

3. CARSON MCCULLERS: THE SOUTHERN HEART¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­.74

4. FLANNERY O¡¯CONNOR: SOUTHERN FAITH¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­...100

5. BOBBIE ANN MASON: THE CONTEMPORARY SOUTHERNER¡­¡­¡­¡­...125

6. A SUMMARY RETROSPECT¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­145

WORKS CITED ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­.156

WORKS CONSULTED ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­.163

iii

CHAPTER 1

DISTORTED TRADITIONS

Introduction

The term ¡°grotesque,¡± which has become almost synonymous with Southern literature,

generates a great deal of literary disagreement. Originally used to describe something decidedly

non-human, applied to the gargoyles perched atop medieval cathedrals, ¡°grotesque¡± has come to

represent a diverse range of conditions. Philip Thomson notes in his historical survey The

Grotesque that the term retained its identity as a tangible, visual reference as it moved out of the

grottoes of ancient Rome into the cathedrals of medieval Europe and eventually onto the

canvasses of painters. However, much of the definitional trouble began as it moved onto the

pages of writers. Once the use of ¡°grotesque¡± moved out of the strictly tangible realm into the

intangible realm, disagreements over its significance began in earnest.

What continues to lie at the heart of the debate is an inability to determine what ought to

be considered grotesque. Consequently, literary critics such as Thomas Mann, William Van

O¡¯Connor, and Leslie Fiedler cannot agree on the ¡°proper¡± use of the term, leading some critics

to complain that the term ¡°has been applied so frequently and so recklessly by so many

contemporary critics to so many different literary occurrences that it now becomes increasingly

difficult to use the term with any high degree of clarity and precision¡± (Spiegel 426), while

others begin to see the grotesque as the true hallmark of the Modernist genre (Millichap 339).

However, the lively debate over what is or is not grotesque suggests that the concept is only

undergoing its own metamorphosis into something more in keeping with contemporary views.

As Geoffrey Harpham notes, the grotesque is omnipresent and can support nearly any theory;

therefore, there appears to be no way to progress to a comprehensive theory (¡°Preface¡± xviii).

1

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