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T. L. Brink Crafton Hills College Yucaipa CA 92399 tlbrink@ craftonhills. edu

SBCCD

Mary Flannery O’Connor 1925 -1964

Mary O’Connor

Entering college

Young writer in Iowa

In her late 30 s

Early critical reviews “profoundly unladylike”

Publishers responded to queries “Dear Mr. O’Connor”

“Extremity” (Asals, 1982)

Old Testament tales (Michaels, 2013)

obedience (Gordon, 2000)

prophecy (Balee, 1995)

“centered in retribution” (Daretta, 2006)

the Incarnation (Lake, 2005)

Risen Son (Desmond, 1987)

“the apocalypse” (Kessler, 1986)

Thomistic thought (Montgomery, 2006)

Catholic sacramentalism (Srigley, 2004; Mc. Mullin 2007)

Catholic Existentialism (Grimshaw, 1981)

“Christ-haunted” (Wood, 2004)

“a proper scaring” (Baumgaertner, 1988)

“a response to nihilism” (Edmondson, 2002)

“writing against God” (Mc. Mullin, 1996)

“the medieval grotesque” (Gentry, 1986; Direnzo, 1993)

Southern Gothic

What Happened to Baby Jane?

Cape Fear

Night Hunter

Wise Blood

What gives insight? Not her interviews or letters.

Interviews “Everywhere I go, I'm asked if the universities stifle writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them. “

Interview “When I'm asked why Southern writers particularly have a penchant for writing about freaks, I say it's because we are still able to recognize one. “

Letter, 1955 "The Church is the only thing that is going to make the terrible world that we are coming to endurable; the only thing that makes the Church endurable …

Letter, 1955 is that it is somehow the body of Christ and that on this we are fed. You have to suffer from the Church as for it. " “…

Methodological Challenge

Methodology An attempt to use online text analyzers to gain insight into O’Connor’s prayers

Linguistic Inquiry Word Count http: //www. liwc. net/tryonline. php

Linguistic Inquiry Word Count “Reason has no role but to serve the values chosen by faith. ”

Daniel Soper’s sentimentanalysis http: //www. danielsoper. com/ sentimentanalysis/default. aspx

sentimentanalysis “This free tool will allow you to conduct a sentiment analysis on virtually any text written in English. The system computes a sentiment score which reflects the overall sentiment, tone, or emotional feeling of your input text. ”

sentimentanalysis “Sentiment scores range from -100 to +100, where 100 indicates a very negative or serious tone and +100 indicates a very positive or enthusiastic tone. ”

Senti. Strength http: //sentistrength. wlv. ac. uk/

Senti. Strength “Positive sentiment strength ranges from 1 (not positive) to 5 (extremely positive) and negative sentiment strength from -1 (not negative) to -5 (extremely negative)…

Senti. Stength ”The sentiment strength detection results are not always accurate - they are guesses using a set of rules to identify words and language patterns usually associated with sentiment. “

The data A dozen of O’Connor’s prayers

“Dear God, I don’t want to have invented my faith to satisfy my weakness. I don’t want to have created God to my own image as they’re so fond of saying….

“ … Please give me the necessary grace, oh Lord, and please don’t let it be as hard to get as Kafka made it. ”

LIWC Self-references (I, me, my) 10. 34 Social words 3. 45 Positive emotions 8. 62 Negative emotions 1. 72

sentimentanalysis Interpretation: This text has a sentiment score of 100. 0. This means that the overall sentiment or tone of this text is very positive / enthusiastic.

Senti. Strength positive strength 2 negative strength -2

“When I think of all I have to be thankful for I wonder that You just don't kill me now because You've done so much for me already & I haven't been particularly grateful. ”

LIWC Self-references (I, me, my) 17. 65 Social words 5. 88 Positive emotions 2. 94 Negative emotions 2. 94

sentimentanalysis Interpretation: This text has a sentiment score of 100. 0. This means that the overall sentiment or tone of this text is very positive / enthusiastic.

Senti. Strength positive strength 2 negative strength -1

“Man's desire for God is bedded in his unconscious & seeks to satisfy itself in physical possession of another human…

“…This necessarily is a passing, fading attachment in its sensuous aspects since it is a poor substitute for what the unconscious is after. ”

LIWC • Self-references (I, me, my) • 0. 00 • Social words • 6. 98 • Positive emotions • 4. 65 • Negative emotions • 0. 00

sentimentanalysis Interpretation: This text has a sentiment score of 100. 0. This means that the overall sentiment or tone of this text is very negative / serious.

Senti. Strength positive strength 0 negative strength 0

“no one can be an atheist who does not know all things. Only God is an atheist. The devil is the greatest believer and he has his reasons. ”

LIWC Self-references (I, me, my) 0. 00 Social words 13. 79 Positive emotions 0. 00 Negative emotions 3. 45

sentimentanalysis Interpretation: This text has a sentiment score of 100. 0. This means that the overall sentiment or tone of this text is very positive / enthusiastic.

Senti. Strength positive strength 1 negative strength -2

“When something is finished, it cannot be possessed. Nothing can be possessed but the struggle. ”

LIWC • Self-references (I, me, my) • 0. 00 • Social words • 0. 00 • Positive emotions • 0. 00 • Negative emotions • 0. 00

sentimentanalysis Interpretation: This text has a sentiment score of 100. 0. This means that the overall sentiment or tone of this text is very negative / serious.

Senti. Strength positive strength 1 negative strength – 3

“But learned people can analyze for me why I fear hell and their implication is that there is no hell. But I believe in hell. Hell seems a great deal more feasible to my weak mind than heaven. . .

“…No doubt because hell is a more earth-seeming thing. I can fancy the tortures of the damned but I cannot imagine the disembodied souls hanging in a crystal for all eternity praising God. ”

LIWC Self-references (I, me, my) 8. 22 Social words 2. 74 Positive emotions 1. 37 Negative emotions 13. 70

sentimentanalysis Interpretation: This text has a sentiment score of 98. 1. This means that the overall sentiment or tone of this text is very positive / enthusiastic.

Senti. Strength positive strength 1 negative strength -4

“Virtue must be the only vigorous thing in our lives. Sin is large and stale. You can never finish eating it nor ever digest it. It has to be vomited. ”

LIWC Self-references (I, me, my) 3. 23 Social words 6. 45 Positive emotions 6. 45 Negative emotions 3. 23

sentimentanalysis Interpretation: This text has a sentiment score of 100. 0. This means that the overall sentiment or tone of this text is very positive / enthusiastic.

Senti. Strength positive strength 1 negative strength – 2

“Two people can remain "in love"-a phrase made practically useless by stinking romanticism--only if their common desire for each other unites in a greater desire for God. ”

LIWC Self-references (I, me, my) 0. 00 Social words 6. 67 Positive emotions 6. 67 Negative emotions 3. 33

sentimentanalysis Interpretation: This text has a sentiment score of 100. 0. This means that the overall sentiment or tone of this text is very positive / enthusiastic.

Senti. Strength positive strength 4 negative strength -3

“I suppose that is what we have to get grace. Give me the courage to stand the pain to get the grace, Oh Lord. Help me with this life that seems so treacherous, so disappointing. ”

LIWC Self-references (I, me, my) 10. 53 Social words 7. 89 Positive emotions 2. 63 Negative emotions 2. 63

sentimentanalysis Interpretation: This text has a sentiment score of 100. 0. This means that the overall sentiment or tone of this text is very positive / enthusiastic.

Senti. Strength positive strength 3 negative strength -4

“I do not know You God because I am in the way. Please help me to push myself aside. ”

LIWC • Self-references (I, me, my) • 25. 00 • Social words • 10. 00 • Positive emotions • 0. 00 • Negative emotions • 0. 00

sentimentanalysis Interpretation: This text has a sentiment score of 100. 0. This means that the overall sentiment or tone of this text is very negative / serious.

Senti. Strength positive strength 3 negative strength -1

“My dear God, I am impressed with how much I have to be thankful for in a material sense; and in a spiritual sense I have the opportunity of being even more fortunate. But it seems apparent to me that I am not translating this opportunity into fact. ”

LIWC Self-references (I, me, my) 12. 24 Social words 0. 00 Positive emotions 6. 12 Negative emotions 0. 00

sentimentanalysis Interpretation: This text has a sentiment score of 100. 0. This means that the overall sentiment or tone of this text is very positive / enthusiastic.