A disgruntled white southern intellectual named Walter decides to pretend, through a penpal relationship with a social justice activist, that he is Black. 


This is a Flannery O'Connor story that you have probably never read, and we'll discuss it today on the podcast.


Fragments of the unfinished novel have just been released, along with context-setting essays and commentary, by literary scholar and writer, Jessica Hooten Wilson. The book is called Flannery O’Connor’s Why Do the Heathen Rage? A Behind-the-Scenes Look at a Work in Progress, and it is further illuminated with artwork by Steve Prince (you can see one of his powerful prints above).

 

The story fragments are fascinating, but the gloss Steve and Jessica provide help us unpack what's going on with Flannery. In this broken text, we watch her come up against her limits as a white southerner of her times and as a writer. What was she doing? What, maybe, was God doing? 

 

We discuss O'Connor's work, intersections with Malcolm X and James Baldwin, what stories do to harm or heal, and what art and artistic collaborations make possible.

 

Dr. Jessica Hooten Wilson is the Fletcher Jones Endowed Chair of Great Books at Pepperdine University. She is the author or editor of several books, including Flannery O’Connor’s Why Do the Heathen Rage? A Behind-the-Scenes Look at a Work in Progress, Reading for the Love of God, and two award-winning books of literary scholarship: The Scandal of Holiness, and Giving the Devil His Due: Demonic Authority in the Fiction of Flannery O’Connor and Fyodor Dostoevsky.

 

Steve A. Prince is a mixed media artist, master printmaker, lecturer, educator, and art evangelist with his MFA in Printmaking and Sculpture from Michigan State University. He is the Director of Engagement and Distinguished Artist in Residence at the Muscarelle Museum at William and Mary. A native of New Orleans, he currently resides in Williamsburg, Virginia.

 

Now pour yourself a big ol' glass of sweet tea and hold on to your rocking chair. This exploration of Flannery O'Connor won't be what you're used to. We hope you enjoy the conversation.
 

Learn more about Steve Prince's work. 

Learn more about Jessica Hooten Wilson's work. 

Learn more about TLC's Human Pilgrimage conference.