Southern Gothic Questions
Bring on the tough stuff. There's not just one right answer.
- How appropriate is the term "Gothic" for this type of Southern literature? What about the Southern Gothic echoes the Gothic literary tradition, and what about it differs from Gothic literature?
- Does an author have to come from the South in order to write Southern Gothic literature? Or can Southern Gothic writers come from other regions of the country?
- How does Southern Gothic literature deal with issues like slavery and race? Do different writers approach these issues differently? If so, how?
- Why is it that white authors, as opposed to African American authors, are associated with the Southern Gothic tradition? What's the relationship between the Southern Gothic tradition and the African American literary tradition?
- How did the legacy of the Civil War impact the development of Southern Gothic?
- Why do you think the figure of the outsider is so prevalent in Southern Gothic literature?
- Why and how is the Southern landscape important in Southern Gothic literature? What does the Southern landscape represent or embody in this tradition?
- In what ways do Southern Gothic writers conceive of Southern identity as separate from Northern identity? What's the relationship between Southern identity and American identity, as a whole?
- Why do the macabre and the grotesque play such a prominent role in this literary tradition? What do these sinister or disturbing elements represent or suggest about Southern identity?
- Why is irony such an important literary device in Southern Gothic?