Understanding the Southern Gothic in American Literature

In order to understand the role of the Southern Gothic in American Literature, it is important to understand its background.

Focuses on "grotesque" characters in both inward and outward appearances
Outward appearance: In "A Rose for Emily," Miss Emily Grierson is described as "bloated" with eyes like "two small pieces of coal pressed into a lump of dough" (Faulkner, 2011, p. 539).

Inward character: Likewise, in "A Good Man is Hard to Find," O'Connor highlights the grandmother's manipulative nature, therefore representing unfavorable characteristics of the South (Miller, n.d.). For example, the grandmother, a self-proclaimed devout Christian, refuses to fess up to her son when she has unintentionally causes the family to get lost. Her deception is ironic considering that she had recently commiserated with Red Sammy concerning the lack of honesty in society today, "'It isn't a soul in this green world of God's that you can trust,' she said" (O'Connor, 2011, p. 252).

The defining feature of the Southern Gothic is the cast of 'off-kilter" characters. Broken bodies, minds or souls are used to symbolize problems created by the established pattern and are also used to question established pattern's morality and ethical justification. The "Innocent" is a common character, who may or may not be "broken," but who often acts as a redeemer for others.

Other specific features of Southern Gothic

Freakishness - In most Southern Gothic stories, there is an important character who is set apart from the world in a negative way by a disability or an odd and often negative way of seeing the world.

Outsider - The feeling of being an outsider is one of the main concepts of the Southern Gothic tradition. These are characters who do not follow the cultural mainstream, yet often become heroes in their own right because of their unique ways of seeing things and help people perceive a situation or their predicament in a different way.

Imprisonment - Often the idea of imprisonment is both expressed on a literal and figurative levels. In some stories, the character is sent to jail or locked up. S/he could also be the victim of his or her own emotional or physiological imprisonment.

Violence - Racial, social and class difference often create underlying tension in Southern Gothic novels that threatens, and usually does, erupt in violent ways.

Sense of place - One can't read a Southern Gothic novel without understanding what a Southern town "feels" like: old small towns, houses that have front porches with rocking chairs, old downtown with stately but worn-down buildings.

To sum up, the Southern Gothic tradition is a genre, or "type" of literature within the American literary canon that emphasizes the supernatural or the grotesque. Beyond the characteristic of decay, dark forests, eerie houses, lies a common thread.

References
Miller, L. (n.d.). Southern gothic in American literature [Microsoft PowerPoint]. Retrieved from mason.gmu.edu/~llmiller/Syllabi/AR/Southern_Gothic.ppt