Southern Gothic

what is southern gothic steered by?

• southern gothic is steered by authenticity; its a family thing. an intimacy that readers from anywhere can relate to

• it revolves around violence and high stakes

• it hold the story of the American south; slavery and prejudice through civil war and Jim Crow

what are southern writers bonded by?

• southern writers are bonded by an oral tradition of front porch storytelling and constructing vibrant sentences

• this is also apparent in the dialogue of southern gothic writers who endow their characters with speech that is wise without being didactic

what are some feature of southern gothic?

• the natural world is alive in southern fiction and deemed gothic by its persuasive influence on the characters and their actions

• colourful phrases brighten the dark themes of southern gothic novels

Characteristics

• some of the characters included exploring madness, decay and despair, continuing pressures of the past upon the present, dispossessed southern aristocracy and continue racial hostilities

• focus on the southern history of slavery, racism and fear of the outside world

• a “fixation with the grotesque, and a tension between realistic and supernatural elements” - Marshall, Bridget

• villains who disguise themselves as innocents giving the readers a blurred line between victim and villain eg. Good Country People

• set out to expose the myth of the old Antebellum South with its narrative of an idyllic past