“Incarnational Art”: Thing Theory and Flannery O’Connor’s Wise Blood

Abstract

AbstractFlannery O’Connor’s fiction confounds contemporary critics and readers with its combination of grotesque, violent imagery, and a deeply consistent, thematic concern with religion. This article argues for a new methodology of reading O’Connor that will enrich this seeming incongruence, by first examining the role of objects, such as those inWise Blood, through the lens of thing theory. Heidegger’s idea of the thing and Bill Brown’s thing theory offer readers a mode of interpreting objects that expands the traditional sense of symbolism and encourages a broader understanding of the multiple layers of significance—both the functional and metaphysical—encompassed in things that play a major role inWise Blood, such as the car, gorilla suit, and mummy. Through a close reading ofWise Blood, the author demonstrates thing theory’s potential as a tool to account for O’Connor’s incarnational aesthetic, and to overcome the tendency to relegate her fiction to purely religious or secular spheres.