The Southern Gothic genre has its roots in the American Gothic horror of Edgar Allan Poe, whose works formulated what would become the distinguishing features of Southern Gothic literature. The historical realities and tensions of the post-Civil War South made for the perfect landscape to explore dark and brooding Gothic themes.įlannery belongs to a tradition of Southern Gothic literature that developed post-World War II and bridged the gap between older Southern Gothic authors, like William Faulkner, and more contemporary Southern Gothic authors, like Carson McCullers. The short answer is that Southern Gothic is a genre of literature that began in the early 19 th century which takes Gothic themes of alienation and repression and sets them in the American South. Since I have begun my assistantship at Andalusia in August, I have often been asked what is Southern Gothic? Many guests who tour Andalusia are aware that Flannery was a Southern Gothic author but are not exactly sure what that means. Sordid endings which employ mystery and terror are a defining feature of Southern Gothic fiction, which is characterized by grotesque, macabre, or fantastic incidents. In the same class, I also read other Southern Gothic stories like Eudora Welty’s “The Petrified Man,” and William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily.” Each story possessed a morbid or violent ending that stuck in my mind.
And who could forget Hulga and her stolen leg in “Good Country People”? I was intrigued by these stories, their settings, and the moral twists and turns they took me on. I was first introduced to Flannery in an undergrad American Literature course where I read two of her most well-known short stories- “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” and “Good Country People.” The climactic ending of “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” was brutal and thrilling. Flannery’s works are perhaps representative of the literary genre. As an English graduate student at Georgia College, Flannery O’Connor immediately comes to mind when I think of Southern Gothic fiction.
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