1. What’s Gothic Art? Starting in the 1800s, an artistic movement called Gothic Romanticism began. There’s Gothic Architecture (which is much older), as well as Gothic art and literature.

2. How does Gothic Art reflect the world of the 1800s? 1800s Europe was very concerned with “keeping up appearances.” There were lots of problems (domestic abuse, disease, poverty, alcoholism, opium addiction, prostitution, sexual assault, brutally violent wars, slavery, sexism, racism, religious extremism, aristocrats marrying their cousins to avoid “sullying” their pure blood lines with the lower classes, etc.). However, these problems were not talked about in polite society…even though most people were dealing with them. Gothic Art uses fantastic or supernatural situations to explore these real-world problems. Gothic Art is fascinated with things like strong emotion, violence, death, desire, madness, the supernatural…everything that “polite society” tries to keep under wraps.

3. Images of Gothic Romanticism What social problems could be being alluded to in these fantastic images?

4. The Gothic style blends beauty and horror, desire and disgust, fear and fantasy.

5. Poe was actually one of the first artists to bring Gothic literature to America. Just think of all the beautiful dead girls in his stories… The recurrent motifs of alcohol, murder, and madness… The weird, almost supernatural events…

6. Meanwhile, in the American South… “Polite society” in the Deep South was also fixated on “keeping up appearances,” dressed to the nines in the boiling summer heat. And underneath that fancy exterior, there were very similar problems to the ones in Europe, most importantly issues like slavery, racism, poverty, obsession over blood purity & family honor, alcoholism, disease, sexism, sexual assault & domestic abuse, and the constant violence that went hand in hand with all of these things.

7. And because of the distinct regional flavor of the American South, you get Southern Gothic.

8. A southern twist on a classic formula Instead of mad scientists and witches, you get psychotic preachers or voodoo witch doctors. Instead of vampires and werewolves, you get KKK Klansmen, abusive hillbillies…or equally abusive “southern gentlemen.” Instead of haunted castles, you get decaying plantation manors or dirty trailer parks. Instead of damsels in distress, you get impoverished children or escaped slaves.

9. Some images of the Southern Gothic