To Kill a Mockingbird a Southern Gothic Novel by Harper Lee

Harper Lee Born April 28, 1926

About the author Harper Lee grew up in Monroeville, Alabama Her father, a lawyer and state legislator, was a descendant of General Robert E Lee Lee was an avid reader and from a young age wanted to become a writer Attended University of Alabama and later moved to NYC to pursue a writing career After two years of writing and revising, To Kill a Mockingbird was published in 1960

About the novel To Kill a Mockingbird was an immediate success Won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 Voted best novel of the century by Library Journal in 1999 1991 survey by the Library of Congress asked readers to rank books that had made a significant difference in their lives. TKM ranked second after the Bible. TKM is the only novel Lee ever published For more than 40 years, Lee has declined to comment on her novel, letting it speak for itself

Gothic Literature Gothic Literature is defined as Germanic and medieval Popular in the early 19th century Common characteristics like brooding atmosphere, haunted castles/mansions, isolated settings, ghosts, spirits, vampires, mysterious disappearances/reappearances, supernatural occurrences, sensational plot lines Central Aim – to evoke terror in its reader

American Gothic Mid 18th century onwards Teresa A Goddu suggests that the gothic has “an intimate relation to the romance” and thus “American literature is infiltrated by the popular, the disturbing, and the hauntings of history.” She further suggests that “American gothic literature criticizes America’s national myth of new-world innocence by voicing the cultural contradictions that undermine the nation’s claim to purity and equality.”

American Gothic Cont. “Showing how these contradictions contest and constitute national identity even as they are denied, the gothic tells of the historical horrors that make national identity possible yet must be repressed in order to sustain it.” Examples of contemporary American gothic include the horror fiction of Stephen King and the vampire fiction of Anne Rice

Southern Gothic Often seen as the primary site of American gothic because the South is the repository of values and attributes not necessarily welcome in the rest of the country   Edgar Allan Poe cited as the first writer of gothic and his status as a Southerner makes him the first southern gothic writer  Issues of race, alienation, and otherness are central to southern gothic

Southern Gothic Cont. Toni Morrison, in Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination (1992), wrote:            Black slavery enriched the country’s creative possibilities.  For in that construction of blackness and enslavement could be found not only the not-free but also, with the dramatic polarity created by skin color, the projection of the not-me.  The result was a playground for the imagination.  What rose up out of collective needs to allay internal fears and to rationalize exploitation was an American Africanism – a fabricated brew of darkness, otherness, alarm and desire that is uniquely American. (Quoted by Goddu, 74)

Southern Gothic Cont. "My mother, Southern to the bone, once told me all Southern literature can be summed up in these words: `On the night the hogs ate Willie, Mama died when she heard what Daddy did to Sister.'" Pat Conroy From the South Watch web page (http://www.uncg.edu/~rsginghe/far9596.htm)

Gothic Elements in TKM Race: Trial of Tom Robinson based on deep racial fears  Otherness: Boo Radley is an unseen and unknown figure hence he is a ghost like presence in the novel; the Ewells, Cunninghams and other country folk are the others to Scout  Alienation: many characters are profoundly alienated from their culture – Scout, Atticus, Miss Maudie, Mrs. Dubose  Setting: the crumbling mansions and homes of the south, as well as the crumbling southern way of life, are analogous to the castles and medieval settings of British gothic Hauntings and the Supernatural: the mysterious gifts in the knothole in the tree, the rescue from the murder attempt, these are examples of supernatural like events

Style Bildungsroman: “novel of education” or “novel of formation” – Lee chooses a form of fiction that explicitly deals with the maturation of its protagonistv    Duality: the novel is structured at virtually every level around dualities.  The tension created by the opposition of themes, narrative points of view, communities, genders and so on provides a cohesiveness in the novel.    Narration: double-layered narration is used.  The mature Scout explicitly tells the story at the outset of the novel and at its end.  In the middle, the story is told from the perspective of Scout as a child.  However, there are points in the novel where the two narrators are almost co-existing.

Style Cont. Language: Lee employs colloquial language (informal) – esp. in the speech of the characters (dialogue) and in the descriptions of setting   Metaphors: Lee employs several central metaphors in the novel:       Mockingbird Snowman Mad dog Boo Radley Clothing – esp. Scout’s clothes Buildings

Themes Race Relations Growing up Search for Identity America divided Justice vs. the Law  History vs. the Present Conformity vs. Individuality Gender Roles Stereotypes Exposed Myths of Childhood