Southern Gothic literature takes place in the American South during the late 1800s to early 1900s. It brings Gothic genre elements like darkness, mystery, and fear to criticize social issues in the South like racism, poverty, and resistance to change from the Old to New South. Major themes include deeply flawed characters, decaying symbols of the Antebellum period, and revealing the dark side of Southern culture, values, and conventions. Examples of works in this genre include Frankenstein and Dracula, which deal with these themes through Gothic tropes to examine the South's past.

1. Southern Gothic Literature
Mrs. Fennell
LA 11
Mr. Weber
English Survey - Honors

2.  Architecture?
 Literature?
 What else?

3.  Takes place in the Victorian period
 Mid 1800s to early 1900s
 America and Britain
 Global expansion
 Industrial Revolution
 Changing society

4.  Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
 Dracula by Bram Stoker
 Edgar Allen Poe
 Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
 Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by
Robert Louis Stevenson
 The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

5.  The Stupid Servant and strong hero
 Darkness
 Supernatural
 Urbanization
 Virginal Maiden
 Mystery and Fear
 Macabre
 Lots of foreshadowing
 The setting: Hopeless isolation, walls, forests,
inclement weather

6.  When you think of the American South, what
do you think of?

7.  The history of the South has made it a place
with a unique culture and history.
 Some of the problems that are NOT unique
to the South but influence its culture are:
 Racism (slave history, Civil War)
 Poverty
 A strong sense of Identity

8.  Brings the atmosphere and sensibilities of the
Gothic, a genre originating in late 18th
century England, to the American South.
 As early Gothic writers used the genre in part
to criticize what they saw as the moral
blindness of their era, so Southern Gothic
writers deal with their own past through
Gothic tropes.

9.  Major theme: a resistance to change, a
struggle between The “Old South” and the
“New South”
 Antebellum Literature
 Symbols of decay
 Deeply flawed characters
 Evocation of chilling terror and gloom

10.  Confusion about good and evil
 Revealing dark and hidden side of things
 Reaction to the conventional, common sense,
and enlightened world
 Debutante and the Gentleman
 Social class and Race

11.  To critique Southern culture
 To call the reader’s attention towards the
social issues of the South
 To examine the values of the South

12.  Parts of presentation taken from:
http://www.piafennell.com/southern-gothic-
short-stories.html