Southern Gothic

Southern Gothic is a subgenre of Gothic fiction unique to American literature that takes place exclusively in the American South.

Common themes in Southern Gothic literature include deeply flawed, disturbing or eccentric characters who may or may not dabble in hoodoo,[1] ambivalent gender roles and decayed or derelict settings,[2] grotesque situations, and other sinister events relating to or coming from poverty, alienation, crime, and violence.

Origins

Elements of a Gothic treatment of the South were apparent in the 19th century, ante- and post-bellum, in the grotesques of Henry Clay Lewis and the de-idealized visions of Mark Twain.[3] The genre came together, however, only in the 20th century, when Dark Romanticism, Southern humour, and the new Naturalism merged into a new and powerful form of social critique.[3]

Characteristics

The Southern Gothic style is one that employs the use of macabre, ironic events to examine the values of the American South.[4] Thus unlike its parent genre, it uses the Gothic tools not solely for the sake of suspense, but to explore social issues and reveal the cultural character of the American South — Gothic elements taking place in a magic realist context rather than a strictly fantastical one.

Warped rural communities replaced the sinister plantations of an earlier age; and in the works of leading figures such as William Faulkner, Carson McCullers and Flannery O'Connor, the representation of the South blossomed into an absurdist critique of modernity as a whole.[3]

Authors and music

Other key authors

Some have included Eudora Welty in the category but apparently she disagreed: '"They better not call me that!" she abruptly told Alice Walker in an interview.'[6]

A resurgence of Southern Gothic themes in contemporary fiction has been identified in the work of figures like Cherie Priest, Joe R. Lansdale,[7] and Barry Hannah.[8]

Southern Gothic in music

Southern Gothic (also known as Gothic Americana, or Death Country) is a genre of music characterized by a fusion of alternative rock and classic country/folk. The genre shares thematic connections with the Southern Gothic genre of literature, and indeed the parameters of what makes something Gothic Americana appears to have more in common with literary genres than traditional musical ones. Songs often examine poverty, criminal behavior, religious imagery, death, ghosts, family, lost love, alcohol, murder, the devil, and betrayal.[9]

Artists

Albums

Photographic representation

The images of Great Depression photographer Walker Evans are frequently seen to evoke the visual depiction of the Southern Gothic, Evans claiming that "I can understand why Southerners are haunted by their own landscape".[10]

Another noted Southern Gothic photographer was surrealist, Clarence John Laughlin, who photographed plantations, cemeteries, and other abandoned places throughout the South (primarily Louisiana) for nearly 40 years.

Film and television

A number of films and television programs are also described as being part of the Southern Gothic genre. Some prominent examples are:[11]

Postmodern pastiche

William Gibson took an ironical look at the cult of 'Southernness' in his novel Virtual Light. Rydell, the stolid, southern antihero, is looking for a job at an LA shop called Nightmare Folk Art — Southern Gothic. The (northern) owner finds him unsuitable. "'What we offer people here is a certain vision, Mr. Rydell. A certain darkness as well. A Gothic quality....The Mind of the South. A fever dream of sensuality'".[13]

Put out to find himself not southern enough for this New Englander, "'Lady,' Rydell said carefully, 'I think you're crazier than a sack full of assholes.' Her eyebrows shot up. 'There,' she said. 'There what?' 'Color, Mr. Rydell. Fire. The brooding verbal polychromes of an almost unthinkably advanced decay.'"[13]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Julia Merkel (2008). Writing against the Odds. pp. 25–27.
  2. ↑ Harold Bloom (2009). The Ballad of the Sad Cafe – Carson McCullers. pp. 95–97.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 J. M. Flora et al., ed. (2002). The Companion to Southern Literature. pp. 313–16.
  4. ↑ "Genre: The Southern Gothic". Oprah Winfrey.
  5. ↑ Allan Lloyd Smith (2004). American Gothic Fiction: An Introduction.
  6. ↑ Susan V. Donaldson (September 22, 1997). The Mississippi Quarterly. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  7. ↑ Daniel Olson (2011). 21st-century Gothic. p. 171.
  8. ↑ Julia Merkel (2008). Writing against the Odds. p. 31.
  9. ↑ "Gothic Americana tag". Last.fm. Retrieved March 10, 2014.
  10. ↑ Julia Merkel (2008). Writing against the Odds. p. 57.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 11.5 11.6 11.7 11.8 11.9 11.10 11.11 11.12 11.13 Samuel Wigley (January 20, 2014). "10 great Southern Gothic films". BFI.org.uk. British Film Institute. Retrieved March 13, 2014.
  12. ↑ "Building a Southern Gothic". The Wall Street Journal. April 24, 2013. Retrieved May 6, 2014.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 William Gibson (1993). Virtual Light. pp. 53–4.

External links