SOURCE: "Deconstructed Meaning in Two Short Stories by Flannery O'Connor," in Ambiguities in Literature and Film, edited by Hans P. Braendlin, The Rorida State University Press, 1988, pp. 125-34.

In the following excerpt, Schenck offers a deconstructionist analysis of "A Good Man Is Hard to Find."

Many contemporary theories of criticism address problems of meaning based on philosophies of language and the aesthetics of reception, so we worry less today about the author's conscious intentions than in previous times. Nevertheless, interpreting works of an author who has commented extensively on his or her own art may still be considered presumptuous. When the author has offered religious interpretations, counterarguments may seem to border on the heretical. Such are the risks for critics attempting to discuss how the fiction of Flannery O'Connor creates meanings in addition to or in contrast with what she herself said about her work.

O'Connor frequently commented...