A Case Study of Poetics in A Prayer Journal by Flannery O’Connor

By Maryann DiEdwardo Ed.D.

Copyright 2016

“A Case Study of Poetics in A Prayer Journal by Flannery O’Connor” juxtaposes my writing practices with A Prayer Journal by Flannery O’Connor published in 2013 by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, New York, USA. My thesis centers upon my attempt to recognize the journaling as a daily writing practice paramount to writer’s ethic. My four presentations listed concentrate on the theme of the case study: College English Association International Conference in St. Petersburg, Florida. March 31, April 1 and 2 2011. “Writing Between Rivers Transforming Poverty through Writing Travel Journals and Juvenile Fiction”; Pennsylvania College English Association Conference (PCEA) Narratives of Travel and Navigation: English by Water, Air, Land, and Imagination. Erie Pennsylvania. March 2011. “Travel Journals of Thoreau with Attention to Themes of Nature, Transcendentalism, and Place memory as a Framework for Teaching English Composition and Writing Juvenile Fiction”; “Overcoming Poverty through Journaling.” Feminism in Practice Conference, Reflection, Action, Change. Lehigh University. November 2010; and “Writing Between Rivers.” The Passing Light. EAPSU Conference, English Association of the Pennsylvania State Universities A River Runs Through Us: Exploring the Poetics of Place. October 1-3, 2010.

     The prayer journaling paradigm sequences my journey. From 2002-2009 I wrote books and painted oils and watercolors about the rivers in the state of Pennsylvania. During the early months of 2009, contemplation on the land where I live promoted me to write a diary called “Writing between Rivers”, Lehigh, Delaware and Susquehanna, a paradigm for a novel about poverty called The Passing Light.  I teach journaling and historical fiction writing in my lectures. I visited special places that inspired me to retain hope as I experienced life changes such as job shifts, illness, and the death of my parents. The land between rivers emerged as a template and voice to tell a story that carries hope. I came to know poverty during the twentieth century. My father experienced her during the Black March in Eastern Europe and my mother found her in the confines of a childhood in the coal regions of Pennsylvania with her.  To end world hunger, we banish selfishness and engender hope through sharing. Share your plenty with others so you engage in peaceful acts to bridge poverty through contentedness. I am delighted to share my writing and art based upon the rivers of Pennsylvania. 2015. Northeast Modern Language Association.

     Previous to the prayer journaling for grief recovery after the death of my parents, I wrote prayers for gifts to friends. But, the powerful language and poetics of the work by Flannery O’Connor changes us as we experience her inner life. On page 67, the hand written darker inked portion where she tells her soulful decision that the journal is not quite a “direct medium for prayer” astounds us. Flannery O’Connor continues to write that “Prayer is not even as premeditated as this—it is of the moment and this to too slow for the moment” in a humanity that reaches our souls (11/4 entry).

The prayer journaling for myself indicates study of trauma. I write personal monologues about a first person narrative style character who experience famine. I used my own experiences. 

   

Similarly, The Poetics of O’Connor, are based on life experiences. I suggest that a study of my own prayer journal about the trauma of famine and the prayer journal of O’Connor show the strife of trauma and the semiotic praxis of the study of signs of language of trauma ignite specific language. 

Maryann DiEdwardo’s Persona Monologue One

Character represents an archeologist who found a diary in Pennsylvania during the early 20th century:

The female archeologist is the persona momlogue for my fictional representation of myself. My monologue is based upon a diary written in the mountains and by the rivers of Pennsylvania in the mid eighteenth century. My memories span three centuries, the eighteenth when my ancestors arrived in America, the 20th century with two world wars, human suffering and triumph, and the 21st century of conflict with other nations as America became the attacked on September 11, 2001.. My voice is female in origin, but I have experienced the events of time as no other. I found a small journal, of worn leather, during an archeological dig in Pennsylvania on a tiny island in the Susquehanna River in the early 21st century. As my past was cruel to me, I intend to live my life as an adult in the service of other beings to share my suffering and to bring joy to others through story telling. 

Maryann DiEdwardo’s Personal Monologue Two   From Diary, the small black book found by Archaeologist  

“I write because I live the natural world so much that my thoughts flow between rives and mountains. This small book I hold in my hand connects my fear and my passion as well. I have been so lucky yet so blind to the truth that there is a God who cares. Life is more than we see. My dreams center upon hope of humans healed from illness and poverty to enfold a better world where all can join in peace. Rivers run as each path is the same, the day, the night, the journey to the next life. But I am different.  I see peace in all people. 

I want to tell a story of two people I knew who changed my life. Today, I write in this small book to somehow let others know how to overcome poverty. It is winter, in New York City, in 1846 when I arrived on a boat from Ireland. I remember a boy who smiled at me on the boat trip that was so long but full of promise of a new life away from the hunger we all experienced in Ireland. 

Here in the United States, supposedly a haven from harm, plight, hunger and fear, he was lost. My friends are in Ireland and my family is gone, as the potato famine was too much for them. The loss of life from hunger takes away personal dignity. 

When I came to the new America I had only my faith. To say that I am Catholic by choice is a question, but to say that Catholicism, or Universalism, has guided me is another.  I am saved by the Lord God by my mystic life of prayer and commitment to helping others not by a certain church. But today, I am in need. No food. 

The call from God to save others has withered in the night as he approached the new world called Philadelphia. But wait. Maybe if he prayed so hard that his sight is healed by God, he will be able to withstand the horror of his past and move to a new day.

Thrust between my remembrances leans my pain. I am the child of a very ill woman and a man of the early 20th century. I write in my diary about Jonathan, was born in Ireland and who dies in America. His story is also my story as he is my lover, friend and husband”

Works Cited

Presentations by Maryann DiEdwardo

College English Association International Conference in St. Petersburg, Florida. March 31, April 1 and 2 2011. “Writing Between Rivers Transforming Poverty through Writing Travel Journals and Juvenile Fiction”

Pennsylvania College English Association Conference (PCEA) Narratives of Travel and Navigation: English by Water, Air, Land, and Imagination. Erie Pennsylvania. March 2011. “Travel Journals of Thoreau with Attention to Themes of Nature, Transcendentalism, and Place memory as a Framework for Teaching English Composition and Writing Juvenile Fiction.”

“Overcoming Poverty through Journaling.” Feminism in Practice Conference, Reflection, Action, Change. Lehigh University. November 2010.

“Writing Between Rivers.” The Passing Light. EAPSU Conference, English Association of the Pennsylvania State Universities A River Runs Through Us: Exploring the Poetics of Place. October 1-3, 2010.