Southern Gothic

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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 characters, decayed or derelict settings, and other sinister events relating to or coming from poverty, racism, and violence.^[1] It is unlike its parent genre in that it uses these tools not solely for the sake of suspense, but to explore social issues and reveal the cultural character of the American South, with the Gothic elements taking place in a magic realist context rather than a strictly fantastical one.

The southern Gothic style is one that employs the use of macabre, ironic events to examine the values of the American south.^[2]

See also

• Southern Ontario Gothic
• African American literature
• Southern literature
• Southern Renaissance
• Suburban Gothic
• Tasmanian Gothic
• Magical realism

Notes

External links

• The Southern Literary Trail features the major fiction writers from the South during the 20th Century.