1. 19th & 20th Century literary genre
The Southern Gothic
19th & 20th Century literary genre

2. Southern Gothic Literature
Southern Gothic is a subgenre of Gothic fiction
Gothic fiction itself is an extension of Romanticism: both of these genres examined the concept of the individual. While Romanticism saw beauty, greatness, and hope when they looked at the individual, Gothic Literature saw the potential for evil and darkness.
Many of the characteristics we associate with horror movies come from the Gothic
Spacious, yet claustrophobic, buildings that were at one point grand, but have fallen into disrepair
A sense of mystery and foreboding
Supernatural events
Grotesque imagery: unnatural or bizarre, or just simply odd and out of place
Questions of identity & dual personalities
Frayed nerves and a precarious mental state in the protagonist
Other horror tropes are present as well: howling dogs, strange noises in the night, thunder & lightning, ghostly presences

3. Southern Gothic Literature
Southern Gothic keeps the grotesque and supernatural characteristics, with several key differences:
As its name suggests, the settings of these stories are transplanted from England or the northeastern U.S. to the American South
Because of this new setting, they incorporate many of the cultural characteristics (and conflicts) of the South to offer social critiques of ante- and postbellum society
Antebellum: pre-Civil War; postbellum: after the Civil War
For example, the image of the Gothic castle or mansion gives way to the deteriorating Southern plantation house post-Civil War
Later, warped rural communities replace these sinister plantations
Instead of characters wrestling with repressive Victorian-era social expectations, they grapple with the lost ideals of a dispossessed Southern aristocracy and racial hostilities
One goal of Southern Gothic was to expose the myth of old antebellum South, and its false narrative of an idyllic past

4. Southern Gothic Literature
Representative Authors:
Flannery O’Connor
William Faulkner
Truman Capote
Harper Lee
Tennessee Williams
Anne Rice
Cormac McCarthy
Eudora Welty
Welty didn’t like being categorized in this genre, as, like many authors and critics, she considered the term “Southern Gothic” as pejorative and dismissive.