Southern Gothic: What Is This Genre and Where Are It's Influence?

• Since the middle of the 20th century Southern writers have interpreted and illuminated the history and culture of the region through the conventions of the Gothic narrative, which at its best provides insight into the moral faults they perceive in societies and social conventions.

• All of the Southern Gothic writers seemed to have vivid imaginations which were bizarre and grotesque.

• Roots of this literature lay perhaps in the fact that the writers knew that they were part of a dying culture - where the dashing and romantic were founded on an economy based on injustice and cruelty - ie slavery.

• The Southern Gothic movement in literature brings the atmosphere and sensibilities of the Gothic, a genre originating in late 18th century England, to the American South.

• As early Gothic writers used the genre in part to criticise what they saw as the moral blindness of their era, so Southern Gothic writers deal with their own past.

• Southern Gothic Literature builds on on the traditions of the larger Gothic genre, typically including supernatural elements, mental illness and the grotesque guide to the plot and to explore social issues and reveal the cultural character of the American South.

• Much Southern Gothic Literature, however, eschews the supernatural and deals instead with disturbed personalities

• Southern Gothic is known for its damaged and delusional characters, such as the heroines of Tennesse William’s plays

• The Southern Gothic author usually avoids perpetuating antebellum (pre-civil war) stereotypes like the demure Southern Belle or the chivalrous gentlemen

• Instead, the writer takes classic Gothic archetypes, such as the damsel who is in distress and/or imprisoned or the heoric knight, and portrays them in a more modern and realistic manner

• Southern Gothic was first popularised by 19th century short story masters such as Edgar Allen Poe

Characters of Southern Gothic

• One of the defining features of Southern Gothic is the cast of off-kilter characters, many of whom are mentally unstable

• The genre is riddled with many broken bodies, and even more broken souls

• Morality is in question for many characters

• A major theme for Southern Gothic writers hinges on innocence, and the innocent’s place in the world — where they are often asked to act as redeemer

• But in the end, purity of heart rarely overpowers desperation

• Tenenesse Williams described Southern Gothic as a style that captured ‘an intuition, of an underlying dreadfulness in modern experience’

He said this:

‘I write out of the love for the South…It is out of a regret for a South that no longer exists that I write of the forces that have destroyed it… I write about the South because I think the war between romanticism and the hostility to it is very sharp there’ (Quoted by his mother in Remember Me to Tom)

What is Southern Gothic Literature?

• It is a genre of Southern writing

• Often focuses on grotesque themes

• Many include supernatural elements

• Mainly focuses on damaged, even delusional characters

• Inspired by early Gothic writing, a genre that was popular in 18th century England

• In Gothic Literature, the authors wanted to expose the problems they saw in society

• Authors wrote in fiction, but it included supernatural and romantic elements

• Often stories about hauntings, death, darkness and madness

• Well known examples are: Frankenstein and Dracula

• American Gothic Literature began in the 19th century. It reached its height in popularity in the 19040s-1960s

Characteristics of the Genre

• Southern Gothic does not dwell on suspense and supernatural

• There is dark humour in the stories

• Follows ideas of exposing the problems of society, but does so by developing complex characters

• Authors explored behaviours of people(usually strange) and the social order of the South

• Through their stories, the authors hoped to show that the social order was fragile and realities behind it were actually disturbing

• Set in the south and take place on a plantation, old slave quarters or broken downtowns

• Many Southern elements in the stories like : dialect, habits and personalities

• Characters are usually complex, many are mentally unstable. They are broken in spirit and struggling to find a place in society once again. Morality of characters is often questioned.