Competing Cultural Narratives of (Ec)Centric Religion in the Works of Faulkner, O’Connor, and Hurston

University of Kentucky UKnowledge Theses and Dissertations--English English 2016 Southern Transfiguration: Competing Cultural Narratives of (Ec)centric Religion in the Works of Faulkner, O’Connor, and Hurston Craig D. Slaven University of Kentucky, [email protected] Digital Object Identifier: http://dx.doi.org/10.13023/ETD.2016.116 Right click to open a feedback form in a new tab to let us know how this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Slaven, Craig D., "Southern Transfiguration: Competing Cultural Narratives of (Ec)centric Religion in the Works of Faulkner, O’Connor, and Hurston" (2016). Theses and Dissertations--English. 31. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/english_etds/31 This Doctoral Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the English at UKnowledge. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations--English by an authorized administrator of UKnowledge. For more information, please contact [email protected]. STUDENT AGREEMENT: I represent that my thesis or dissertation and abstract are my original work. Proper attribution has been given to all outside sources. I understand that I am solely responsible for obtaining any needed copyright permissions. I have obtained needed written permission statement(s) from the owner(s) of each third-party copyrighted matter to be included in my work, allowing electronic distribution (if such use is not permitted by the fair use doctrine) which will be submitted to UKnowledge as Additional File. I hereby grant to The University of Kentucky and its agents the irrevocable, non-exclusive, and royalty-free license to archive and make accessible my work in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I agree that the document mentioned above may be made available immediately for worldwide access unless an embargo applies. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of my work. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of my work. I understand that I am free to register the copyright to my work. REVIEW, APPROVAL AND ACCEPTANCE The document mentioned above has been reviewed and accepted by the student’s advisor, on behalf of the advisory committee, and by the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS), on behalf of the program; we verify that this is the final, approved version of the student’s thesis including all changes required by the advisory committee. The undersigned agree to abide by the statements above. Craig D. Slaven, Student Dr. Alan Nadel, Major Professor Dr. Andrew Doolen, Director of Graduate Studies SOUTHERN TRANSFIGURATION: COMPETING CULTURAL NARRATIVES OF (EC)CENTRIC RELIGION IN THE WORKS OF FAULKNER, O’CONNOR, AND HURSTON _____________________________ DISSERTATION _____________________________ A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky By Craig Desmond Slaven Lexington, Kentucky Director: Dr. Alan Nadel, Professor of English 2016 Copyright © Craig Desmond Slaven 201 ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION SOUTHERN TRANSFIGURATION: COMPETING CULTURAL NARRATIVES OF (EC)CENTRIC RELIGION IN THE WORKS OF FAULKNER, O’CONNOR, AND HURSTON This project explores the ways in which key literary texts reproduce, undermine, or otherwise engage with cultural narratives of the so-called Bible Belt. Noting that the evangelicalism that dominated the South by the turn of the twentieth century was, for much of the antebellum period, a relatively marginal and sometimes subversive movement in a comparatively irreligious region, I argue that widely disseminated images and narratives instilled a false sense of nostalgia for an incomplete version of the South’s religious heritage. My introductory chapter demonstrates how the South’s commemorated “Old Time” religion was not especially old, and how this modernist construct of an idealized past helped galvanize Southern evangelicalism into a religion that more readily accommodated racial hegemony in the present. The following three chapters examine Faulkner’s Light in August, O’Connor’s Wise Blood, and Hurston’s Jonah’s Gourd Vine and Moses, Man of the Mountain. I find that each of these novels embeds traces of forgotten religious dissidence. The modern nostalgia for a purer old-time religion, my readings suggest, says less about the history of religion in the South than it does about New-South efforts to merge evangelical and “Southern” values, thereby suppressing any residual opposition between them. KEYWORDS: Southern Literature, Religion, Modernism, American Studies, Race Studies ________________________________________Craig Slaven Student’s Signature ________________________________________March 10, 2016 Date SOUTHERN TRANSFIGURATION: COMPETING CULTURAL NARRATIVES OF (EC)CENTRIC RELIGION IN THE WORKS OF FAULKNER, O’CONNOR, AND HURSTON By Craig Desmond Slaven ________________________________________Dr. Alan Nadel Director of Dissertation ________________________________________Dr. Andrew Doolen Director of Graduate Studies ________________________________________March 10, 2016 Date ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am greatly indebted to my director, Dr. Alan Nadel, for his unwavering support and encouragement, for his high standards, and for his general vote of confidence in my scholarship. My writing, research, and critical outlook have benefited immensely from his mentorship. Thanks to Dr. Roxanne Mountford, Dr. Rynetta Davis, and Dr. Peter Kalliney for their insights and feedback, and to Joanne Melish, who traveled all the way from Rhode Island to attend my exam. I am especially thankful for my guest committee member, Dr. Barbara Ladd, who, having never met me in person prior to the defense, generously corresponded with me and sent invaluable comments on my work. Thanks to the Assistant Dean of the Graduate School, Dr. Morris Grubbs, for his endless support of graduate students and for his role in the Nietzel Visiting Distinguished Faculty Program that allowed us to bring Dr. Ladd to Lexington. I would also like to thank my former faculty mentors at Louisiana State University, Dr. John Lowe, Dr. Brannon Costello, and Dr. Ed White. Without their kindness and guidance, I could have never made it this far. I am grateful for friends and family who have kept me sane and grounded throughout the years. Thanks to my parents, Gary and Julie Slaven, for their unconditional love and for the countless ways they have invested in my life and my endeavors. Thanks to Brother Gene and Mrs. Nita, who treated me like family long before they ever knew I would one day be their son-in-law. I am forever thankful for their prayers and for their consoling wisdom. To my partner and best friend, Hannah Slaven, you are the smartest, most talented, and most interesting person I know, and sharing life with you makes every achievement so much more meaningful. To our amazing daughters, Story and Day, I have learned more from knowing you and watching you grow than I ever did or could from a book. “Daddy” will always be my most cherished title. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter One ........................................................................................................................ 1 Chapter Two. Below the Bible Belt: Reading Discrepancy Between Southern Nostalgia and Southern History .......................................................................................................... 8 Disorder in Early Southern Revivalism .................................................................... 10 The Margin in the Middle ......................................................................................... 19 From the Camp Meetings to the Rebel Camps: Civil War, Reconstruction, Redemption ............................................................................................................... 24 The Antisocial Gospel ............................................................................................... 31 Southern Religion in Black and White ..................................................................... 34 Chapter Three. Blessed Insurgence: The Repression of Religious Dissent in Light in August ............................................................................................................................... 40 Overview ................................................................................................................... 40 The “chapel back in the hills”: The Forgotten Legacy of Evangelical Dissent in the Hightower Narrative ................................................................................................. 47 Volitionless Servants of Fatality: The Paradox of Evangelical Voluntarism and Cultural Determinism ................................................................................................ 68 Blessed Insurgence; or, Why Every Church Service in Light in August is Interrupted ................................................................................................................. 84 Chapter Four. The Prophet as Spectacle: the Limits of Commodified Religion in the Works of Flannery O'Connor ............................................................................................ 92 Chapter Five. “Congo gods talking in Alabama”: Bad Memory, Unauthorized Histories, and the (Un)Making of Southern Religion in the Works of Zora Neale Hurston ........... 131 Chapter Six. Conclusion ................................................................................................

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