Redemption by offence? Literary terrorism in Flannery O’Connor Beata Agrell University of Gothenburg Terrorism can be many violent things: political, religious, ideological, psychological, and even aesthetical. 1 This paper deals with terrorism as a coercive strategy in liter- ary texts. Such a strategy compels into a reading that confronts with offensive, disgusting, or even frightening experiences. Since this reading is prepared by the systematic rhetorical construction of the text, earmarked for an unsuspecting reader, I call it literary terrorism. 2 The purpose of literary terrorism is to awaken the reader; to bring about new ways of seeing, and ultimately some kind of conversion. As an aesthetic technique, literary terrorism therefore is related to estrangement in the sense of the Formalist Viktor Shklovskij and the Marxist Bertolt Brecht. 3 The violent Flannery O’Connor An expert author in this field is Flannery O’Connor (1925–1964). She is a weird phenomenon of the American South: an ardent Catholic within the Protestant 159 1. Terrorize, according to Oxford English Dictionary: “to coerce or deter (someone) by threat or violence.” In SAOB [The Dictionary of the Swedish Academy] terrorize is defined as frightening through systematic threats, or actions systematically arousing irritation or anger. Since 9/11 political terrorism is focussed even in reference works like Schmid (ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Terrorism Research. 2. Research on Literary terrorism mainly deals with terrorism as aesthetic transgressions where the coercive element only expresses power without didactic aims. Se e.g. Lentricchia and McAuliffe, Crimes of art + terror, and Houen, Terrorism and Modern Literature. Persson, “Litteratur, teori, terrorism” deals with various problems of the transgression theory – both ethical and aesthetical. 3. Shklovskij, “Art as Device;” Brecht, “On Chinese Acting.” See also Nielsen, Flannery O’Connors romaner, 308–311. (2016) “Redemption by offence? Literary terrorism in Flannery O’Connor.” In Knut Ove Eliassen, Gunnar Foss, Lars Nylander (eds.): Litteratur og terror. Volden, politikken, estetikken. Oslo: Novus, 2016. P. 159–172. [draft version]