Wise Blood

E63177

Wise Blood is a darkly comic Southern Gothic novel by Flannery O’Connor that follows a disillusioned war veteran who founds a bizarre anti-religious ministry in a decaying Southern town.

Observed surface forms (1)

Surface form Occurrences
Wise Blood (1979 film) 1

Statements (47)

Predicate Object
instanceOf Southern Gothic novel
dark comedy novel
film
novel
author Flannery O'Connor
surface form: Flannery O’Connor
basedOn Wise Blood self-linksurface differs
centralConflict Hazel Motes’s struggle to reject and yet be haunted by Christian belief
character Asa Hawks
Enoch Emery
Hazel Motes
Hoover Shoats
Leora Watts
Mrs. Flood
Sabbath Lily Hawks
containsMotif blindness
false prophets
grotesque bodily harm
religious street preaching
countryOfOrigin United States of America
surface form: United States
director John Huston
firstEditionFormat print
genre Southern Gothic
dark comedy
religious fiction
hasAdaptation Wise Blood self-linksurface differs
surface form: Wise Blood (1979 film)
hasInfluenceOn Southern Gothic
surface form: American Southern Gothic literature
literaryMovement Southern Gothic literature
literarySignificance considered one of Flannery O’Connor’s major works
mainCharacter Hazel Motes
narrativePerspective third-person narration
notableFor darkly comic treatment of religious fanaticism
use of grotesque characters
originalLanguage English
plotSummary The novel follows Hazel Motes, a disillusioned war veteran who founds the anti-religious Church Without Christ in a decaying Southern town.
protagonist Hazel Motes
publicationYear 1952
publisher Harcourt Brace & World
surface form: Harcourt Brace
setInCountry United States of America
surface form: United States
setInPeriod post–World War II era
setInRegion Southern United States
surface form: American South
setting fictional city of Taulkinham, Tennessee
theme faith versus nihilism
grace and redemption
religious belief and unbelief
satire of American Protestantism
spiritual blindness
violence and grotesque imagery

Referenced by (7)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Wise Blood basedOn Wise Blood self-linksurface differs
subject surface form: Wise Blood (1979 film)
Wise Blood hasAdaptation Wise Blood self-linksurface differs
this entity surface form: Wise Blood (1979 film)
Flannery O'Connor notableWork Wise Blood
Flannery notableWork Wise Blood
subject surface form: Flannery O'Connor
Mary notableWork Wise Blood
subject surface form: Mary Flannery O'Connor