Flannery O'Connor's stories, especially "A Good Man is Hard to Find," provide an unfettered look at moral ambiguity. Southern gothic did not discriminate, nurturing some of the most talented female writers of this century. If society hangs in the balance of an idiot's mind or on the words of a deaf-mute, we are all in trouble. In the end, purity of heart rarely overpowers desperation. But this is still a genre of love and loss. Faulkner's innocent is the mentally handicapped Benji from The Sound and the Fury Carson McCullers the deaf-mute John Singer. A major theme for southern gothic writers hinges on innocence, and the innocent's place in the world-where they are often asked to act as redeemer. Morality is in question for many characters. When southern gothic authors examine the human condition, they see the potential to do harm. One of the defining features of southern gothic is the cast of off-kilter characters, many of whom are "not right in the head." The genre is riddled with many broken bodies, and even more broken souls. After the depression, Faulkner is joined by a host of other talented writers, among them Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote, Flannery O'Connor, Cormac McCarthy and Carson McCullers. Family and personal traditions are replaced by strife and confusion. His characters cry the tears of a misbegotten people struggling to make sense of a world that has moved on without them. In the 1920s and 30s, William Faulkner makes the genre popular again with his heartbreaking views of life in fictional Yoknapatawpha County, depicted with stunning detail in books like The Sound and the Fury, Light in August and Absalom, Absalom!įaulkner's towns burst with the rage of Civil War defeat and slave revolt. Steeped in folklore, oral history, suspense and local color, southern gothic is first popularized by 19th-Century short story masters Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Ambrose Bierce. Southern gothic writers leverage the details of the American South-the lonely plantations, aging Southern belles, dusty downtowns, dilapidated slave quarters, Spanish moss and Southern charm-to bring life to their slice of history. When you cross the sweeping drama of romance with the macabre isolation of small town life-and then throw in a touch of Southern whimsy-you've cooked up a collection of American literature absolutely unique in time, place and sentiment.
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