Southern Gothic is an artistic subgenre offiction,music,film, theatre, and television that is heavily influenced byGothic elements and set in theAmerican South. Southern Gothic fiction highlights violence and cruelty as features of southern culture, often through characters whose place in the social order exposes them to such treatment. Common motifs include racism, gender and sexual difference, poverty and disability. Where Gothic literature depicted the intrusion of the barbaric past intothe Enlightenment, Southern Gothic depicts the persistence of social trauma in the reconstructed south. The genre arose in reaction to romantic portrayals influenced byLost Cause myths and the ideology ofAmerican exceptionalism.[1][2][3]
Elements of a Gothic treatment of the South first appeared during theante- and post-bellum 19th century in the grotesques ofHenry Clay Lewis and in the sardonic representations ofMark Twain.[4] The genre was consolidated, however, in the 20th century, whendark romanticism, Southern humor, and the newliterary naturalism merged in a new and powerful form of social critique.[4] The themes largely reflected the cultural atmosphere of the South following the collapse of theConfederacy in theCivil War, which left a vacuum of cultural and religious values as well as economic devastation. The poverty and bitterness during the post-warReconstruction era exacerbated the racism endemic to the region.[citation needed]
Like the original artistic term "Gothic", the term "Southern Gothic" was at first pejorative and dismissive. In 1935,Ellen Glasgow critiqued the writings ofErskine Caldwell,William Faulkner, and the "Southern Gothic School", stating that their work was filled with "aimless violence" and "fantastic nightmares". The connotation was at first so negative thatEudora Welty said: "They better not call me that!"[5]
The setting of these works is distinctly Southern. Some of these characteristics include exploring madness, decay and despair, continuing pressures of the past upon the present, particularly with the lost ideals of a dispossessed Southern aristocracy and continued racial hostilities.[5]
Southern Gothic particularly focuses on the South's history ofslavery, racism, fear of the outside world, violence, a "fixation with the grotesque, and a tension between realistic and supernatural elements".[5]
Similar to the elements of the Gothic castle, Southern Gothic depicts the decay of the plantation in the post-Civil War South.[5]
Villains who disguise themselves as innocents or victims are often found in Southern Gothic literature, especially stories byFlannery O'Connor, such as "Good Country People" and "The Life You Save May Be Your Own", giving the reader a blurred line between victim and villain.[5]
Southern Gothic literature set out to expose the myth of the oldAntebellum South with its narrative of an idyllic past that covered over social, familial, and racial denials and suppressions.[7]
A resurgence of Southern Gothic themes in contemporary fiction has been identified in the work of figures likeBarry Hannah (1942–2010),[8]Joe R. Lansdale (b. 1951),[9]Helen Ellis (b. 1970) andCherie Priest (b. 1975).[9]
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A number of films, television programs, and other works are also described as being part of the Southern Gothic genre. Some prominent examples are:
Southern Gothic (also known as Gothic Americana, or Dark Country) is a genre of American music rooted in earlyjazz,gospel,Americana,gothic rock andpost-punk.[25] Its lyrics often focus on dark subject matter. The genre shares thematic connections with the Southern Gothic genre of literature, and indeed the parameters of what makes something Gothic Americana appears to have more in common with literary genres than traditional musical ones. Songs often examine poverty, criminal behavior, religious imagery, death, ghosts, family, lost love, alcohol, murder, the devil, and betrayal.[26][27]
Bruce Springsteen'sNebraska (1982) was influenced by the writings of Flannery O'Connor.[28]Athens, Georgia–basedalternative rock bandR.E.M. displayed a Southern Gothic influence with their third album,Fables of the Reconstruction (1985).[29]J.D. Wilkes, frontman of the bandLegendary Shack Shakers, described Southern Gothic music as "[taking] an angle that there's something grotesque and beautiful in the traditions of the South, the backdrop of Southern living."[30]Ethel Cain's music has been described as "Southern Gothic Pop,"[31] often focusing on themes such as intergenerational trauma, Christianity, grotesque violence, poverty, and abuse, and she often credits inspiration to the works of Southern Gothic writers such as Flannery O'Connor.
The Southern Gothic genre comes to the stage in many different ways.
Southern Gothic fiction writers likeCarson McCullers andZora Neale Hurston adapted their own work for the stage in language-heavy productions ofThe Member of the Wedding andSpunk.
Playwrights likeTennessee Williams,Beth Henley, andJacqueline Goldfinger translated elements of Southern Gothic aesthetic to the stage and added theatrical elements such as stylized movement, dialogue, and design. Examples of Southern Gothic plays include the Pulitzer Prize winnerA Streetcar Named Desire (1948), the popularThe Jacksonian (2014), and the Yale Prize winnerBottle Fly (2018).
In addition, many Southern Gothic novels and short stories have been adapted for the stage by artists who are not the original authors. The Tony Award winning musicalThe Color Purple byAlice Walker is a prime example of this approach to theatricalization of the Southern Gothic genre.The Color Purple is an adaptation of the novel with music byBrenda Russell,Allee Willis,Stephen Bray, andMarsha Norman which has been performed around the country constantly since its world premiere at theAlliance Theatre in Atlanta in 2004.
The images ofGreat Depression photographerWalker Evans are seen to evoke the visual depiction of the Southern Gothic; Evans claimed: "I can understand why Southerners are haunted by their own landscape".[32]
Another noted Southern Gothic photographer wassurrealistClarence John Laughlin, who photographed cemeteries,plantations, and other abandoned places throughout theAmerican South (primarilyLouisiana) for nearly 40 years.[33]
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