What was the writer Flannery O’Connor’s taste in fashion, and why should we care?
MGA’s Dr. Monica Miller, associate professor of English and coordinator of graduate programs in English, explores that question in the cover article she wrote for the latest issue of the Flannery O’Connor Review. As a fun bonus, Miller’s husband, Mark Ensley, who is an electronic resources librarian at the University, took the photos of some of O’Connor’s clothes, which are part of the archives of Andalusia, the writer’s Milledgeville home, that accompany the article. They collaborated with Cassie Munnell, the archivist of Andalusia.
“I realized that we’re used to seeing Flannery O’Connor photographed in black and white,” Miller said. “Looking at her clothes in person, I was initially surprised at how many bright colors she wore. However, thinking of her love of peacocks and other birds, her colorful clothing (including a chicken print dress!) makes sense.”
In the article, Miller writes, “Considering O’Connor’s clothes not only provides insights into her day-to-day life … but it offers a potentially rich supplement to reconsider the role that fashion plays in O’Connor’s work. While scholars such as Leanne E. Smith have considered the role that accessories play in marking social class consciousness in O’Connor’s work, seeing how O’Connor herself dressed might provide more insight into reading the garments in her work. She is neither the mother in a kerchief and slacks in ‘A Good Man Is Hard to Find’ nor the slovenly Joy-Hulga in ‘Good Country People.’ This additional data about O’Connor’s own sartorial choices may well provide clues for reading other characters in her work, based on the aesthetic choices they make.”
O'Connor (1925-1964) was an American novelist, short story writer, and essayist from Georgia who lived much of her adult life in Milledgeville on the farm called Andalusia. She wrote two novels and 31 short stories, often in a sardonic Southern Gothic style, and she relied on regional settings and grotesque characters. O'Connor's posthumously compiled “Complete Stories” won the 1972 U.S. National Book Award for Fiction.
