Controlled Distance: Internal Character Presentation in Flannery O'Connor's Short Stories

This dissertation explores the nature and function of narrative distance in Flannery O'Connor's short stories. Narrative distance, in its most general sense, involves the position from which readers view fictional characters and the worlds they inhabit. In stories like O'Connor's, third-person structures which rely heavily on internal character presentation, the study of narrative distance focuses on techniques used to take the reader inside the consciousnesses of characters. O'Connor's stories were chosen as the subject of this study because they share a consistency of design and purpose rarely found in modern fiction. Her exclusive use of third-person narration, her preference for single-character focus, and, perhaps most significantly, the overwhelmingly consistent rhetorical thrust of her stories make them appropriate candidates for a study of narrative distance.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Speech Communication

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2015

Author dc:creator

• Ludwig, Dale Leslie

Contributors dc:contributor

• Maclay, Joanna H.

• Literature, Modern
• Speech Communication
• Literature, American

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

(UMI)AAI8908758

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/77306