Abstract
The meaning and “correct” use of semantic opposites––up:down, male:female, black:white, and good:evil, for example––seem obvious and uncontested in casual speech. Yet the understanding of such pairs remains anything but simple according to deconstructionist critical theory. Founded by French philosopher Jacques Derrida, deconstruction, employed as a literary and linguistic analysis, revels in the uncertainty of language, especially in the dynamic “play” of binary opposites. Hence, Derrida's theories broaden the possibilities of meaning in speech and writing by refusing to ascribe absolute referents to words. Flannery O'Connor's landmark short story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” thoroughly meditates on the reader's grasp of “good” and “evil” with deft use of vernacular language, dark humor, violence, and irony, all against a religious backdrop. Although critics have referred to O'Connor's alleged moralizing and labeled her a writer of “Christian concerns,” the story casts the reader's understanding of good and evil into doubt and, in quintessential deconstructionist fashion, subverts and dismantles that moral hierarchy.
Faculty Sponsors
Dr. Suzanne Ferriss
Project Type
Event
Location
Alvin Sherman Library
Start Date
4-13-2012 1:00 PM
End Date
4-13-2012 5:30 PM
Because You're a Good Man... Right?: A Deconstructive Analysis of Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man Is Hard to Find"
Alvin Sherman Library
The meaning and “correct” use of semantic opposites––up:down, male:female, black:white, and good:evil, for example––seem obvious and uncontested in casual speech. Yet the understanding of such pairs remains anything but simple according to deconstructionist critical theory. Founded by French philosopher Jacques Derrida, deconstruction, employed as a literary and linguistic analysis, revels in the uncertainty of language, especially in the dynamic “play” of binary opposites. Hence, Derrida's theories broaden the possibilities of meaning in speech and writing by refusing to ascribe absolute referents to words. Flannery O'Connor's landmark short story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” thoroughly meditates on the reader's grasp of “good” and “evil” with deft use of vernacular language, dark humor, violence, and irony, all against a religious backdrop. Although critics have referred to O'Connor's alleged moralizing and labeled her a writer of “Christian concerns,” the story casts the reader's understanding of good and evil into doubt and, in quintessential deconstructionist fashion, subverts and dismantles that moral hierarchy.
