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Personal analytical reflection on southern gothic literature
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Cimone Legendre
Mrs. Myszkowski
English 1102
20 April 2017
Southern Gothic Literature Research Paper When it comes to Southern Gothic literature, most authors that had written in this genres stories were younger such as twenty-one through twenty-four when the stories were created. Southern Gothic Literature has always been around and it will continue being around as long as it remains a popular genre. Now, what is Southern Gothic literature? It is a type of writing that was created in the south. The genre surrounds itself “on grotesque themes. While it may include supernatural elements, it mainly focuses on damaged, even delusional, characters”. (What Is Southern Gothic Literature? 1). The whole point of Southern Gothic Literature was to
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It has very complex characters to which expose the society on how it is. All stories in this genre are considered fictional, but always had a something to do with supernatural or something haunting. This includes themes such as death, darkness, and madness (Characteristics of the Genre 1). The SGL is surrounded by the themes that are thought to be gothic, which is under the interpretation of being wild. This type of writing became very popular when writers such as Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne, started to really bring this genre novels to readers. Though after these writers had passed some new and different writers came into view. These 3 popular Southern Gothic Literature writers and their stories were “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and “Good Country People” by Flannery O’Connor, and “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner. It is clearly seen throughout all the …show more content…
The first comparing characteristic would be that the story is very wild. This characteristic can be seen when the grandmother’s cat escapes her cage and everybody is scrabbling through the car and freaking out because of some little cat (A Good Man is Hard to Find 411). The next characteristic that can be seen in comparison to between “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and Southern Gothic Literature would be that Southern Gothic Literature stories bring up social issues. In the story, on page 407, the grandmother states ‘Oh look at the cute little pickaninny!’ she said and pointed to a Negro child standing in the door of a shack. ‘Wouldn't that make a picture, now?’ she asked and they all turned and looked at the little Negro out of the back window” then proceeds to states, “‘He probably didn't have any,’ the grandmother explained. ‘Little riggers in the country don't have things like we do. If I could paint, I'd paint that picture,’ she said”. These statements bring up the social issues of racism, the grandmother is clearly shocked and thinks it is so amazing to see just a black young boy standing on the side of the road. Another example of social issues being brought up is on page 409, the owner of The Tower, Red Sammy, makes the comment “‘A good man is hard to find,’ Red Sammy said. ‘Everything is getting terrible. I remember the
Heroes and villains, your usual story right? Well Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird is far from it. In this novel Harper Lee uses southern gothic literature to tell the story. Gothic literature is a genre of southern writing. The stories often focus on grotesque themes. While it may include supernatural elements it mainly focuses on damaged, even delusional characters. In her novel Harper Lee utilizes the gothic archetypes of the hero, the monster, and the innocents to portray Maycomb’s crisis of conscience during the trial.
William Faulkner’s classic short story, “A Rose for Emily,” has been noted as an excellent example of Southern literature. Southern literature can be defined as literature about the South, written by authors who were reared in the South. Characteristics of southern literature are the importance of family, sense of community, importance of religion, importance of time, of place, and of the past, and use of Southern voice and dialect. Most of the novels are written as a Southerner actually speaks. Many books also describe the historical importance of the Southern town.
Gothic literature was developed during the eighteenth and nineteenth century of the Gothic era when war and controversy was too common. It received its name after the Gothic architecture that was becoming a popular trend in the construction of buildings. As the buildings of daunting castles and labyrinths began, so did the beginning foundation of Gothic literature. The construction of these buildings will later become an obsession with Gothic authors. For about 300 years before the Renaissance period, the construction of these castles and labyrinths continued, not only in England, but also in Gothic stories (Landau 2014). Many wars and controversies, such as the Industrial Revolution and Revolutionary War, were happening at this time, causing the Gothic literature to thrive (“Gothic Literature” 2011). People were looking for an escape from the real world and the thrill that Gothic literature offered was exactly what they needed. Gothic literature focuses on the horrors and the dark sides to the human brain, such as in Mary Shelley’s book Frankenstein. Gothic literature today, as well as in the past, has been able to separate itself apart from other types of literature with its unique literary devices used to create fear and terror within the reader.
What do people think about when they think of the Southern Gothic genre? Is it a genre that has grown old and died with other famous literary focuses? When it’s looked at closely, maybe S-Town will change that way of thinking. While the signs of Southern Gothic Literature isn’t as apparent as it was in the past, S-Town brings it back in a more modern, yet outdated light. The theme of S-Town is very similar to classic forms of Southern Gothic Literature, but it also has some changes to the formula.
Tennessee Williams described Sothern Gothic literature as a style that captured “the underlying dreadfulness in modern experience” (Hemmerling). The literature intended to reveal the social issues surrounding the time period. Features of this literature, “includes situations and places as well as unsavory characters that are often racist, religious fanatic, egotistical or self-righteous” (Kullmer). This description of Southern Gothic literature also fits other genres of post Civil War American literature. Works by authors such as Mark Twain, Charles Chesnutt, Sui Sin Far, Henry James, Kate Chopin, Zora Neale Hurston and Earnest Hemingway also contain characters, situation, and places revealing similar social controversies displaying racism, sexism, and egotistical behavior.
Key Elements of Gothic Literature Jasmine Giles People enjoy reading gothic literature due to its heart rate exciting nature. Without having to engage with any real danger, it is common for the reader to feel anxiety and impaitence when reading gothic fiction. In order for the reader to feel these emotions, the author uses certain elements, such as a gloomy setting and old-fashioned dialoge. In the stories “The Black Cat” and “The Tell Tale Heart”, by elgar allen poe, and “The Landlady”, by Roland Dahl, there are many similarites that remanticize the idea of horror and mystery. Some elements, however, bring out the disbolical horror of gothic literature: the setting, characterization, and the motif of suspense.
Southern gothic is a type of literature that focuses on the harsh conflicts of violence and racism, which is observed in the perspective of black and white individuals. Some of the most familiar southern authors are William Faulkner, Flannery O’Connor, and Cormac McCarthy. One author in particular, Flannery O’Connor, is a remarkable author, who directly reflects upon southern grotesque within her two short stories, “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and “Revelation.” These two short stories are very similar to each other, which is why I believe that O’Connor often writes with violent characters to expose real violence in the world while tying them in with a particular spiritual insight.
Flannery O’Connor was born on March 25, 1925, in Savannah, Georgia. She was an American writer. O’Connor wrote two novels and 32 short stories in her life time. She was a southern writer who wrote in Southern Gothic style. In the Article, Female Gothic Fiction Carolyn E. Megan asks Dorothy Allison what Southern Gothic is to her and she responded with, “It’s a lyrical tradition. Language. Iconoclastic, outrageous as hell, leveled with humor. Yankees do it, but Southerners do it more. It’s the grotesque.”(Bailey 1) Later she was asked who one of her role models was and she stated that Flannery O’Connor was one she could relate to. One of O’Connor’s stronger works was “Good Country People” which was published in 1955.
There is much to American Gothicism. It lies deeply in the conscious awareness of the culture. Its roots are as diverse as the witch trials and the knowledge that one race of people committed genocide against another in order to obtain the land where our most illustrious universities and homogenous strip malls now sit. The character of America is in itself a gothic one. We hold aloft one set of ideas about freedom and equality, while graciously looking the other way when the savage hypocrisy that keeps the daily functions of life on an even keel rears its ugly ...
Southern gothic is a genre that focuses on grotesque themes while including supernatural elements and damaged characters.”The grotesque” is a common character whose negative qualities highlight unpleasant aspects in southern culture. Specifically southern gothic includes characters archetypes such as the innocent and an off-kilter character. Southern gothic comments on southern culture and its moral shortcomings such as social issues like racism. The setting is a very important aspect of the genre as it sets the tone and the mood of the story. The Southern Gothic movie, The Green Mile, uses Southern Gothic elements such as archetypes, “the grotesque”, and setting to establish the binary theme of Black vs. White, in order to highlight and
Gothic can be defined as “noting or pertaining to a style of literature characterized by a gloomy setting, grotesque, mysterious, or violent events, and an atmosphere of degeneration and decay.” (Dictionary.com). In William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” the author uses many gothic elements to contribute to the overall theme of this incongruous short story. More specifically, Faulkner uses Southern Gothic as the key literary device with themes such as love, death and murder. Southern Gothic is a subgenre of Gothic fiction in American literature that takes place solely in the American South. Faulkner’s work uses these dramatic elements to highlight the foremost individual’s struggle against a domineering society that is undergoing rapid change.
American Gothic stories also wrote about the supernatural such as ghosts, monsters, women in distress,
Southern Gothic Literature is a subgenre of Gothic fiction writing, which takes place in the American South. The Southern Gothic style is one of that employs the topics such as death, bizarre, violent, madness, and supernatural. These tools are used “to explore social issues and reveal the cultural character of the American South (Wikipedia).” The view of the South which is self-identified as the “national” or “American” view is basically a colonial Romance, with the rest of the nation identified with the forces of the light and the South with the forces of the darkness (Wacker 107).The authors of Southern Gothic typically use damaged characters to make their stories better, and to show deeper meanings of unpleasant Southern characteristics. These characters are diverse from society due to social, physical or mental disabilities. However, not all characteristics of the characters are bad; it is that a mixture of good and bad is found in most of the characters. Two authors who express the Southern Gothic writing style are William Faulkner, who wrote “A Rose for Emily,” and Flanner O Conner, the author of “Good Country People” and “A Good Man is Hard to Find.”
Genres originate from the Latin word generic, which refers to the type, and is used to define styles in music, art, and literature. Literary genre is a concept distinguished by the composition principle and common characteristics of the story to distinguish different works. Genres play a role in preparing various theories of literature in connection with the problem of how literary works are formed and existed. Besides, the literary genre often divides into the country, era, writer and so on. Author Carolyn Miller says, "What we learn when we learn a genre is not just a pattern of forms or even a method of achieving our own ends. . . . [A]s a recurrent, significant action, a genre embodies an aspect of cultural rationality"
There is one known very influential writing style called Gothic Literature. It is not only considered to involve the horror or gothic element but is combined with romance, superstition, women in distress, omens, portents, vision and supernatural events to name a few (Beesly). The history and beginning of this era is not well known. From a few writers came this writing style that has impacted the world. A famous artists known for this type of writing is a man named Edgar Allan Poe. He wrote many short stories and poems that include horror, gothic, and romance just mentioned.