La présentation du corpus est thématique dans la première partie de la journée, puis aborde en seconde partie les enjeux des nouvelles du jour, avec des commentaires de texte tirés de ces nouvelles.
Lundi 13 décembre: Flannery O'Connor and her Reader. Flannery O'Connor's manner, an overview, or: from laughter to tears.
"A Good Man is Hard to Find" Commentaires de textes :118-120 "The next morning [...] over the grandmother"
124-126 "They turned [...] a little spill."
Mardi 14 décembre : Mystery and Manners, or: religious quest and Southern grotesque. "Suffer little children.."
"The River"
"A Stroke of Good Fortune"
"A Temple of the Holy Ghost"
"A Late Encounter with the Enemy"Commentaires de textes:
164-166 ("The preacher [...] said they would'")
246-248 (last section)
136-138 ("Sally Poker would [...] the General screamed") passage non traité. Voir Les Nouvelles de Flannery O'Connor, 81-83
Mercredi 15 décembre: Landscapes in the sun
"The Life You Save May Be Your Own"
"A Circle in the Fire"
"Greenleaf"
"A View of the Woods"
"Revelation"Commentaires de textes:
145-147 ("The old woman [...] than you and me.")
354-356 ("What he had in mind [...] gorging itself on clay.")
497-500 ("All at once [...] drum of flesh")
Jeudi 16 décembre: Power struggles and other "human dealings"
"The Artificial Nigger"
"The Displaced Person"
"Good Country People"
"The Enduring Chill"Commentaires de textes:
255-257 ("Nelson turned [...] Cane Syrup!'"
287-289 ("The girl at first [...] miraculously, in his.")
Vendredi 17 décembre: Narcissism and Skin-Deep Truths
"Everything That Rises Must Converge"
"The Comforts of Home"
"The Lame Shall Enter First"
"Parker's Back"
"The Geranium" / "Judgment Day"Commentaires de textes:
414-416 ("He began to imagine [...] teach you a permanent lesson.")
392-394 ("The next morning [...] we have everything.'")
445-447 ("Sheppard sat [...] sometime,' Sheppard said.")
512-514 ("Parker was fourteen [...] became general.")
Assignment (to be turned in by Jan. 10):
Sujet de dissertation:
En faisant le bilan de l'œuvre de Flannery O'Connor, le critique Louis D. Rubin faisait la remarque suivante: "She was a humorist, essentially; her work is filled with irony and wit. She had a fine ear for dialogue, she enjoyed chronicling the outrageous, the incongruous. But the humor is not slapstick or flippant ; it arises out of the discrepancy between human limitations and aspirations, and is essentially compassionate. Her people are unfulfilled because they are starved for emotional and spiritual fulfilment." (In Quinn, John J., S. J.,ed. Flannery O'Connor: A Memorial. Scranton: University of Scranton Press, 1965; rééd.1995, pg. 82)
Vous commenterez ce propos en l'illustrant d'exemples tirés de votre connaissance des nouvelles de Flannery O'Connor. Sans documents.
Sujet de commentaire de texte:
From "The Enduring Chill", Complete Stories, pg. 375-377: "I'm Father Finn . . . very ignorant."