Flannery O'Connor and Stylistic Asceticism

Flannery O'Connor and Stylistic Asceticism explores the impact style has not only on a story's meaning, but on the reading experience. O'Connor's sparingly wrought stories, particularly in their climactic moments of divine disclosure, invite characters and readers alike into invitations of graced encounters that often wound even as they bless. Flannery O'Connor and Stylistic Asceticism draws out the force and vulnerability in reading spare stories of graced encounters by identifying a kinship with a much older form of storytelling: biblical Hebrew narrative. Focusing on the climactic scenes of O'Connor's Wise Blood and Genesis 32's account of Jacob's nighttime wrestling, Rachel Toombs offers a fresh take on the theological impact of spare narration. These stories invite readers into a posture akin to prayer where in an uncluttered space we see ourselves as we truly are and there meet God.

Author: Rachel Toombs
Publisher: Pickwick Publications
Published: 10/07/2022
Pages: 190
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.58lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.40d
ISBN13: 9781666732214
ISBN10: 1666732214
BISAC Categories:
- Religion | Christian Theology | General
- Religion | Christianity | Catholic
- Religion | Christianity | Literature & the Arts

About the Author
Rachel Toombs is director of formation at St. Alban's Episcopal Church in Waco, Texas, and part-time lecturer in the Baylor Interdisciplinary Core at Baylor University.