The Intellectual Affinity of Flannery O’Connor and Alexis de Tocqueville
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 13044677 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jerome C Foss (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 9 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 317-334 |
| Publication date | 2020-03-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Political Thought (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2161-1580 • E-ISSN: 2161-1599 |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1086/708441 |
| OpenAlex | W3020444165 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 4 |
Among her many books, Flannery O’Connor owned the Bradley edition of Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, and her marginalia suggest that she read at least parts of it. While tracing any specific influence Tocqueville may have had on O’Connor is difficult, the fact that she was familiar with him is a prompt to compare the two authors. This article argues that O’Connor shared Tocqueville’s concerns about the effects of democracy on manners, religion, and art. I argue that her use of the word “manners” in her prose closely resembles what Tocqueville means by the French moeurs. O’Connor also shared Tocqueville’s worries about Descartes’s influence on religious belief in America. Finally, O’Connor’s prose contains some striking similarities to Democracy in America regarding challenges facing artists in democratic times, particularly artists whose works are deeply informed by traditional theology
Art · Democracy · Flannery · Literature · O'Connor · Political science · Politics · Theology · Law · Philosophy · Religion, Gender, and Enlightenment · Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices
| Citations per year | 0.2 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2021 - 2021 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |