Flannery O’Connor is a writer who defies easy categorization. Her novels and short stories often grapple with the complex intertwining of religious faith and human nature, viewed with her sharp eye for the humorous and the grotesque in everyday life. As an author who has been beloved and dismissed in equal measure since she first began publishing in the 1950s, O’Connor’s reputation seems eternally in flux amongst critics and ordinary readers alike. Who was Flannery O’Connor, and why does her work continue to attract and repulse in equal measure?

Across six revealing lectures, Professor Jessica Hooten Wilson will introduce you to one of the 20th century’s most fascinating and divisive writers in Flannery O’Connor and the Scandal of Faith. Beginning with an overview of her brief but remarkable life, Professor Wilson will then take you through an exploration of themes in O’Connor’s work and the hallmarks of her literary style. You’ll get a clearer picture of O’Connor’s historical and geographical context while digging into how her stories can transcend time and place. Along the way, you’ll also have the opportunity to trace the impact and legacy of her work and consider why her stories endure.

By closely examining O’Connor’s novels and short stories, you’ll see how her very specific time and place—the Southern US in the mid-20th century—and her Catholic faith coalesce to create a remarkably universal lens through which to view the human experience. Flannery O’Connor’s untimely death at the age of 39 means she left behind a relatively small body of work, and yet her stories live on, and with them, her unique approach to the poignant absurdities of faith, art, and life itself.

The Great Courses