19th & 20th Century literary genre The Southern Gothic 19th & 20th Century literary genre

Southern Gothic Literature Southern Gothic is a subgenre of Gothic fiction Gothic fiction itself is an extension of Romanticism: both of these genres examined the concept of the individual. While Romanticism saw beauty, greatness, and hope when they looked at the individual, Gothic Literature saw the potential for evil and darkness. Many of the characteristics we associate with horror movies come from the Gothic Spacious, yet claustrophobic, buildings that were at one point grand, but have fallen into disrepair A sense of mystery and foreboding Supernatural events Grotesque imagery: unnatural or bizarre, or just simply odd and out of place Questions of identity & dual personalities Frayed nerves and a precarious mental state in the protagonist Other horror tropes are present as well: howling dogs, strange noises in the night, thunder & lightning, ghostly presences

Southern Gothic Literature Southern Gothic keeps the grotesque and supernatural characteristics, with several key differences: As its name suggests, the settings of these stories are transplanted from England or the northeastern U.S. to the American South Because of this new setting, they incorporate many of the cultural characteristics (and conflicts) of the South to offer social critiques of ante- and postbellum society Antebellum: pre-Civil War; postbellum: after the Civil War For example, the image of the Gothic castle or mansion gives way to the deteriorating Southern plantation house post-Civil War Later, warped rural communities replace these sinister plantations Instead of characters wrestling with repressive Victorian-era social expectations, they grapple with the lost ideals of a dispossessed Southern aristocracy and racial hostilities One goal of Southern Gothic was to expose the myth of old antebellum South, and its false narrative of an idyllic past

Southern Gothic Literature Representative Authors: Flannery O’Connor William Faulkner Truman Capote Harper Lee Tennessee Williams Anne Rice Cormac McCarthy Eudora Welty Welty didn’t like being categorized in this genre, as, like many authors and critics, she considered the term “Southern Gothic” as pejorative and dismissive.