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Sufjan Stevens

This chapter examines the work of Sufjan Stevens, an innovator in the indie pop music genre. Stevens aspired to be a writer like his “idol” Flannery O’Connor. His “Plan B” led him to a career as a composer and songwriter that has taken him to the forefront of popular music and to the stage of the 2018 Academy Awards. Chapter 5 follows Stevens as he translates his O’Connor-inspired short fiction into his first song cycle, Michigan (2003), and directly references O’Connor’s works in songs on Seven Swans (2004). Stevens shares O’Connor’s Christian beliefs and, like her, he views the human drama as lived under the shadow of the Divine yet played out in territory held largely by the Devil, this chapter argues. Further, like O’Connor, he has produced a body of often parabolic, sometimes Biblically based song narratives that pursue themes similar to those found in O’Connor’s fiction.

University Press of Mississippi

Irwin H. Streight

Flannery at the Grammys

2025

Title: Sufjan Stevens

Description:

This chapter examines the work of Sufjan Stevens, an innovator in the indie pop music genre.

Stevens aspired to be a writer like his “idol” Flannery O’Connor.

His “Plan B” led him to a career as a composer and songwriter that has taken him to the forefront of popular music and to the stage of the 2018 Academy Awards.

Chapter 5 follows Stevens as he translates his O’Connor-inspired short fiction into his first song cycle, Michigan (2003), and directly references O’Connor’s works in songs on Seven Swans (2004).

Stevens shares O’Connor’s Christian beliefs and, like her, he views the human drama as lived under the shadow of the Divine yet played out in territory held largely by the Devil, this chapter argues.

Further, like O’Connor, he has produced a body of often parabolic, sometimes Biblically based song narratives that pursue themes similar to those found in O’Connor’s fiction.

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Sufjan Stevens

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