The (Southern) Gothic

Though there are some similiarities . . .

starts with Horace Walpole’s house, “Strawberry Hill,” which he refurbished with towers, turrets, battlements, arched doors, windows, and ornaments of every description, creating a kind of spurious medieval architecture that survives today mainly in churches, military academies . . . and university buildings.

Strawberry Hill

and his novel The Castle of Otranto elaborates on his “gothic” concerns. It featured a haunted castle, An evil male villain mysterious deaths, supernatural happenings, a moaning ancestral portrait, a damsel in distress, And, as the Oxford Companion to English

Literature puts it, "violent emotions of terror, anguish, and love."

the literary Gothic emerges from the Romantic era, and shares many of the same tropes and themes, such as . . .the omnipresence of death and decayThe importance of terror as revelatory of truthExploration of human psychologySupernatural elements, or suggestions of same.

Reaction against modernity, often protagonist “sees the light” of supernatural after denying it.

The centrality of architectureas model of self/psycheas places of confinementas ancient power structures (castles etc.)

Literary critic Christoph Grunenberg on the centrality of the house in Gothic literature:

"The house functions as a matrix for memory and the exploration of its hidden rooms, forbidden spaces, locked doors, closely, and cupboards (a standard theme in Gothic fiction as in film noir) summons to consciousness displaced and undigested experiences and dreams.“ ("Unsolved Mysteries: Gothic Tales from Frankenstein to the Hair-eating Doll“ 211)

the house often contains a “madwoman” in either the basement or the attic . . . think “The Yellow Wallpaper” or “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Poe.

Thus the secrets being explored are often connected to gender/sexuality.

it frequently has to do with family secretsfamily historiesmemories either forgotten or suppresseddeviant sexuality, incest

since “Gothic” is embedded in yearning for an imagined medieval past, its revival in the American South was due to a yearning for a re-imagined past, where their “peculiar institution” (i.e. slavery) was just one facet of a glorious culture that deserves to be mourned. (think “A Rose for Emily,” also an example of the form.)

“A lurid or macabre writing style native to the American South. 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 (or Gothic novel), which at its best provides insight into the horrors institutionalized in societies and social conventions. (Source : NYPL, 678).

The Grotesqueincludes situations, places, or stock characters

that often possess some truly awful qualities-- typically racial bigotry and egotistical self-righteousness-- but enough good traits that they are nevertheless interesting.

Southern Gothic authors commonly use deeply flawed, grotesque characters for greater narrative range and more opportunities to highlight unpleasant aspects of Southern culture, without being too literal or appearing to be overly moralistic.

thus the form allows Southern writers to examine social institutions in a figurative way: horrors that are in fact embedded in the “historical” past re-emerge in supernatural or shocking ways that actually serve to strengthen their effect.Anne Rice, John Behrendt, William Faulkner,

Cormac McCarthy, Truman Capote, Carson McCullers et al.

the genre, with all its attendant focus on violence, the grotesque, and the family, is ideally suited to O’Connor, whose mission is to “shock” her audience into an understanding of mortality and Christian salvation.

more complex than simple “horror” a la Stephen King: SG writing is more difficult to read and understand, and its effects more complicated.

the genre, with all its attendant focus on violence, the grotesque, and the family, is ideally suited to O’Connor, whose mission is to “shock” her audience into an understanding of mortality and Christian salvation.

more complex than simple “horror” a la Stephen King: SG writing is more difficult to read and understand, and its effects more complicated.

"Whenever I’m asked why Southern writers particularly have a penchant for writing about freaks, I say it is because we are still able to recognize one."

"Anything that comes out of the South is going to be called grotesque by the northern reader, unless it is grotesque, in which case it is going to be called realistic."

"All my stories are about the action of grace on a character who is not very willing to support it, but most people think of these stories as hard, hopeless and brutal."

When you can assume that your audience holds the same beliefs you do, you can relax a little and use more normal ways of talking to it; when you have to assume that it does not, then you have to make your vision apparent by shock -- to the hard of hearing you shout, and for the almost blind you draw large and startling figures."