Narratives of (De)materialisation: Gothic Spectralisation in Flannery OʼConnorʼs “The Enduring Chill” Cover Image

Narativi (de)materijalizacije: gotska spektralizacija u „Beskrajnoj groznici“ Fleneri OʼKonor
Narratives of (De)materialisation: Gothic Spectralisation in Flannery OʼConnorʼs “The Enduring Chill”

Author(s): Vladimir M. Vujošević
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Theology and Religion, Short Story, Comparative Study of Literature, Philology, Theory of Literature, British Literature, American Literature
Published by: Филолошки факултет Универзитета у Бањој Луци
Keywords: Flannery O'Connor; “The Enduring Chill”; Southern Gothic; spectralisation; fictionalisation; romanticisation of death; body; spectre;

Summary/Abstract: The genre structure of the “ghost stories” is preserved in the key works of the so-called Southern Gothic, although these works often lack the real ghosts which were repeatedly portrayed in the early British prototypes of the genre. The basic genre technique employed in the “ghost stories” can best be described as “spectralisation”. Flannery O'Connor's “The Enduring Chill” is perhaps the focal text in the analysis of the spectralisation theme in the Southern Gothic fiction, since it evokes various procedures used in the two pivotal works of this American genre: Tennessee Williams's drama The Glass Menagerie and Faulkner's novel Absalom, Absalom!. This paper explores various subcategories of Gothic spectralisation, such as the motifs of “body loss,” romanticisation of death, and fictionalisation of experience.

  • Issue Year: 2019
  • Issue No: 20
  • Page Range: 483-498
  • Page Count: 16
  • Language: Serbian