Versions of madness in Southern short fiction : Chopin, Faulkner, and O'Connor

This thesis examines the idea that strong interconnections exist between the depiction of Southern America as a region and the use of concepts of 'madness' in the short fiction of Kate Chopin, William Faulkner, and Flannery O'Connor. From a brief discussion of Poe, the 'father' of the short story, whose theories and works first establish the short narrative as an important literary form, and also demonstrate its particular effectiveness in exploring forms of mental distortion, this discussion moves to more extensive analysis of the works of Chopin, Faulkner, and O'Connor. Covering a period between the 1890s and the 1960s, and despite displaying differing perspectives on their region, these authors establish distinct interrelationships between the experience of the South, ideas of personal and social madness, and the unique ability of the short narrative to articulate these themes with the impact of concentrated totality.