Episode 276: An Introduction to Flannery O’Connor
The Literary Life Podcast
Angelina Stanford
4.6 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 13 May 2025
⏱️ 90 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week on The Literary Life podcast, Angelina and Thomas bring us the first of a two-part series on the oft-requested, oft-misunderstood author, Flannery O’Connor. They begin by sharing their commonplace quotes for this week, which leads into the topic of O’Connor, the controversial mid-century southern American author. Angelina gives us a look at Flannery’s early life and education, then her adult life and writing career. She also talks about southern culture and Christianity, as well as ways in which O’Connor’s work is misunderstood by so many people. Thomas highlights the genre of Southern Gothic literature, and Angelina pushes back on that oversimplification of O’Connor, arguing that she is actually writing in the medieval tradition. Join us back here next week as we discuss O’Connor’s short story, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find.”
Now is the time to sign up for the upcoming summer classes and webinars at The House of Humane Letters. Some of the classes highlighted in this episode are Angelina’s next installment in her series of classes on Harry Potter and Thomas’ class on five famous figures of the Victorian era.
To view the full show notes for this episode, including links to books mentioned, as well as commonplace quotes and this week's poem, please visit https://theliterary.life/276.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is not just another book chat podcast. |
| 0:21.6 | Lifelong reader Cindy Rollins joins teachers Angelina Stanford and Thomas Banks for an ongoing conversation about the skill and art of reading well. |
| 0:32.6 | Explore the lost intellectual tradition and discover how to fully enter end to the great works of literature. |
| 0:40.2 | Learn what books mean while delighting in the sheer joy of imagination. Each week, we will rescue |
| 0:47.1 | story from the ivory tower and bring it to your couch, your kitchen, and your commute. The literary life is for everyone because in the |
| 0:55.9 | words of Stratford Caldecott, to be enchanted by story is to be granted a deeper insight into |
| 1:02.2 | reality. Join us for an ever-unfolding discussion of how stories will save the world. |
| 1:09.7 | This is the Literary Life Podcast. |
| 1:31.2 | Hello and welcome to the Literary Life podcast. |
| 1:35.5 | I'm Angelina Stanford, and here with me is the man who is mysterious. |
| 1:37.1 | Not a mystic, though. |
| 1:37.7 | Not a mist. |
| 1:38.4 | Oh, whew. |
| 1:39.6 | That was close call. |
| 1:43.1 | The mysterious Mr. Banks, not the misfit, Mr. Banks. No, no heaven's story. |
| 1:43.9 | You'll get that joke if you tune in next week where we cover A Good Man is Hard to Find. |
| 1:48.6 | No, no, my sociopathic tendencies are mostly exaggerated. |
| 1:53.7 | Mostly. As your wife, I can attest to that. |
| 1:56.2 | That's good, no. |
| 1:56.8 | Mostly. As you might guess, we are starting a new series on Flannery O'Connor. Today, we're going to do an introduction to her, to her writing, to the world that she's writing in, the other literary movements, and address some of the concerns that people have, or I should say confusion people have when they approach her. So we've gotten a lot of requests over the years |
| 2:18.6 | for us to do a Flannery O'Connor podcast. I haven't done it because I have a Flannery O'Connor |
| 2:25.3 | mini class that I have taught and is for sale in our store. And I thought, well, I don't really want to do |
... |
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