Date of Award

Spring 4-13-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

English

First Advisor

Matt Bryant Cheney

Second Advisor

Bruce Gentry

Third Advisor

Katie Simon

Abstract

This thesis examines Flannery O’Connor’s “Good Country People” through the lens of queer theory. Particularly, the work uses concepts by Adrienne Rich and Jack Halberstam to frame its argument. Ultimately, the argument seeks to locate queerness in this story. Then, in order to contextualize the story’s queer themes, the story is also evaluated in terms of pulp and camp media contemporary to the 1950s. I begin by examining the effects of compulsory heterosexuality among the women characters in the text, arguing that the story presents a satire of compulsory heterosexuality. O’Connor achieves this by parodying heterosexual unions through both the failure of the clichés in the story and a set of comedic episodes that denaturalize heteronormativity for the reader. Then, I make the argument that Hulga is not only queered by O’Connor in support of her satire of heteronormative standards, but that Hulga can be read as a queer character via the ideas of Halberstam and Rich. I make use of Halberstam’s Female Masculinity and The Queer Art of Failure in particular. In chapter three, I discuss the effectiveness of O'Connor's depiction of Hulga as a midcentury queer character through the lens of pulp novels and other media contemporary to O’Connor’s time period. I use frameworks by Sontag and Brickman to discuss O’Connor’s connections to the world of pulp and evaluate the success of “Good Country People” in terms of providing queer representation. Ultimately, I assert that “Good Country People” can be read as a queer story that provides meaningful meditations on issues of queer existence and survival in the 1950s.

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