By grounding the Southern writer in her natural element, Flannery O’Connor in her essay, “Some Aspects of the Grotesque in Southern Fiction”  grants her an intrinsically Southern orientation to the characters’ point-of-view and literary themes.  Listen as O’Connor, reads from her fascinating essay.

Here is just a small excerpt of the essay, 

        But approaching the subject from the standpoint of the writer, I think it is safe to say that while the South is hardly Christ-centered, it is most certainly Christ-haunted.  The Southerner, who isn’t convinced of it, is very much afraid that he may have been formed in the image and likeness of God. Ghosts can be very fierce and instructive. They cast strange shadows, particularly in our literature. In any case, it is when the freak can be sensed as a figure for our essential displacement that he attains some depth in literature.

It’s an interesting listen, especially for O’Connor fans.  I love her invention of the phrase, “Christ-haunted.”  It is Just brilliant writing and thinking.