THE TRUTH FROM FACT TO FICTION IN TWO SHORT STORIES OF THE TWENTIETH-CENTURY OLD SOUTH
THE TRUTH FROM FACT TO FICTION IN TWO SHORT STORIES OF THE TWENTIETH-CENTURY OLD SOUTH
Author(s): Anca PeiuSubject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Foreign languages learning, Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Studies of Literature, Philology, Translation Studies, Theory of Literature
Published by: Studia Universitatis Babes-Bolyai
Keywords: black – white; grandparents – grandchildren; irony; truth – facts – fiction; prejudice – reality; guilt – grotesque – growing-up; countryside – city; the Old South;
Summary/Abstract: The Truth from Fact to Fiction in Two Short Stories of the Twentieth Century Old South. The short-stories I have chosen to discuss here are “A Worn Path” (1941) by Eudora Welty and “The Artificial Nigger” (1955) by Flannery O’Connor. They are complementary – as I hope to prove – illustrating two versions of a one-(grand)parent family tale. The white grandfather in O’Connor’s story and the black grandmother in Welty’s story have to cope with ever more difficult tasks in terms of truth(telling/teaching) and (self-)discovery. For truth – at least personally, if not philosophically – may mean facing all dangers as an ancient grandmother, for the sake of her sick grandson; it can mean coming to terms with one’s own old self – in both stories; it may mean facing qualms of conscience and merciless loneliness – for both young and old.
Journal: Studia Universitatis Babes-Bolyai - Philologia
- Issue Year: 64/2019
- Issue No: 1
- Page Range: 173-180
- Page Count: 8
- Language: English