| Flannery O'Connor,the famous American southern woman writer,wrote 2 novels and 31 short stories which attract lasting attention from readers and critics all over the world.She is called“evil”O'Connor by critics because there are many grotesque characters,violence and death in her works.Scholars always pay attention to the violence but neglect the importance of death.There is death in almost every O'Connor's story.Thus,this thesis would mainly interpret the death in O'Connor's short stories from the perspective of New Criticism.The purpose of analyzing tHe death plot and death narrative devices is to find O'Connor's writing intention and the meaning of her works.This thesis is divided into five chapters.Chapter One is a general introduction to O'Connor's life and its influence on her writing,literature review both at home and abroad,and the originality and framework of this thesis.Chapter two provides a general overview of New Criticism,introduces close reading,and states the relation between New Criticism and O'Connor.O'Connor studied at Iowa for two years and met some authorities of New Criticism.Her years at Iowa and her later lessons in craft provided her with a range of techniques.Chapter three analyses the reasons for O'Connor's preoccupation with death.Her special death view is influenced by her religion,her bumpy life and the social condition.By close reading,the death in her works is divided into four types--the death by the intruder,the death of children,the death in the changed world and the death haunting the protagonists.Chapter four mainly elaborates death narrative devices in O'Connor's short stories.Death is used as an allegory,poetic justice and a plot twist.Chapter five is a conclusion of the main body of the thesis.It can be seen that death in O'Connor's works definitely is not a simple reflection of the real life,but includes her unique understanding and thinking.Under the disguise of inexorability and cruelty,her works are in fact full of humanity. |
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