Shop for Regent Audio

Guns, Grit, and Grace: Flannery O’Connor & the Sin of Sentimentality

Speaker(s): Mary McCampbell
Date: Summer 2020
Length: 1h 25m
Product ID: RGDL5002N

Description

This audio product can also be purchased as a video.

Guns, Grit, and Grace: Flannery O’Connor & the Sin of Sentimentality from Regent Audio on Vimeo.

Lecture Description: Catholic Southern author Flannery O’Connor’s “grotesque” aesthetic is a contrast to the “sentimentality” that she saw in the work of so many artists that came before her. According to O’Connor, the presence of shocking violence in art can be used to remind us of the cost of God’s redeeming grace, whereas the presence of sentimentality in art only works to cheapen our understanding of that grace. In this lecture, we will focus on O’Connor’s theology and aesthetics, along with discussing how her ideas provide a relevant, useful lens through which to discuss contemporary film and literature.

Mary McCampbell is is an associate professor of humanities at Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee, where she teaches courses on postmodern theory and fiction, film and philosophy, and popular culture. A native Tennessean, she completed a doctorate in literature at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne focusing on the relationship between contemporary fiction, late capitalist culture, and the religious impulse.

She has been one of the organizers of Calvin College's Festival of Faith and Music since 2009, and she frequently speaks and teaches on the theological significance of popular music, film, and fiction. Mary was the Summer 2014 Writer-in-Residence at L’Abri Fellowship in Greatham, England and periodically lectures at English L’Abri. 

See All Audio by Mary McCampbell