Southern Gothic

Southern Gothic is a subgenre of Gothic fiction unique to American literature that takes place exclusively in the American South. It resembles its parent genre in that it relies on supernatural, ironic, or unusual events to guide the plot. It is unlike its parent genre in that it uses these tools not solely for the sake of suspense, but to explore social issues and reveal the cultural character of the American South. The southern Gothic style is one that employs the use of macabre, ironic events to examine the values of the American south.

Notable works

Literature

• Sartoris and The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner (1929)
• Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe (1929)
• As I Lay Dying and "A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner (1930)
• Sanctuary by William Faulkner (1931)
• Tobacco Road by Erskine Caldwell (1932)
• Light in August by William Faulkner (1932)
• God's Little Acre by Erskine Caldwell (1933)
• Pylon and "Uncle Willy" by William Faulkner (1935)
• Kneel to the Rising Sun by Erskine Caldwell (1935)
• Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner (1936)
• "Black Canaan" by Robert E. Howard (1936)
• You Have Seen Their Faces by Erskine Caldwell and Margaret Bourke White (1937)
• The Unvanquished by William Faulkner (1938)
• "Pigeons from Hell" by Robert E. Howard (1938)
• The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers (1940)
• "A Worn Path" by Eudora Welty (1940)
• The Hamlet by William Faulkner (1940)
• Reflections in a Golden Eye by Carson McCullers (1941)
• A Curtain of Green by Eudora Welty (1941)
• Go Down, Moses and "Two Soldiers" by William Faulkner (1942)
• The Robber Bridegroom by Eudora Welty (1942)
• "Shingles for the Lord" by William Faulkner (1943)
• The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams (1944)
• The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers (1946)
• 27 Wagons Full of Cotton by Tennessee Williams (1946)
• "The Geranium" by Flannery O'Connor (1946)
• A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams (Pulitzer Prize award) (1947)
• Other Voices, Other Rooms by Truman Capote (1948)
• Summer and Smoke and The Night of the Iguana by Tennessee Williams (1948)
• Intruder in the Dust by William Faulkner (1948)
• The Ballad of the Sad Café by Carson McCullers (1951)
• Requiem for a Nun by William Faulkner (1951)
• The Rose Tattoo by Tennessee Williams (1951)
• Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor (1952)
• The Night of the Hunter by Davis Grubb (1953)
• A Good Man Is Hard To Find by Flannery O'Connor (1955)
• Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams (Pulitzer Prize award) (1955)
• Orpheus Descending by Tennessee Williams (1957)
• The Town by William Faulkner (1957)
• Suddenly, Last Summer by Tennessee Williams (1958)
• The Mansion by William Faulkner (1959)
• Sweet Bird of Youth by Tennessee Williams (1959)
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (Pulitzer Prize Award) (1960)
• The Violent Bear It Away by Flannery O'Connor (1960)
• The Reivers by William Faulkner (Pulitzer Prize award) (1962)
• The Orchard Keeper by Cormac McCarthy (1965)
• Everything That Rises Must Converge by Flannery O'Connor (1965)
• Outer Dark by Cormac McCarthy (1968)
• Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose by Flannery O'Connor (1969)
• Deliverance by James Dickey (1970)
• Geronimo Rex by Barry Hannah (1972)
• The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty (Pulitzer Prize award) (1972)
• Suttree by Cormac McCarthy (1979)
• The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O'Connor by Flannery O'Connor (1979)
• Lancelot by Walker Percy (1978)
• Ray by Barry Hannah (1980)
• Locked In Time by Lois Duncan (1985)
• Welcome to the Arrow-Catcher Fair by Lewis Nordan (1983)
• Oral History by Lee Smith (1983)
• The Tennis Handsome by Barry Hannah (1983)
• Beloved by Toni Morrison (Pulitzer Prize award) (1987)
• And the Ass Saw the Angel by Nick Cave (1989)
• The Neon Bible by John Kennedy Toole (1989)
• Fiends by John Farris (1990)
• Joe by Larry Brown (1992)
• The Witching Hour by Anne Rice (1993)
• In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead by James Lee Burke (1993)
• Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt (1994)
• The Sharpshooter Blues by Lewis Nordan (1995)
• Bats out of Hell by Barry Hannah (1995)
• The Green Mile by Stephen King (1996)
• A Feast of Snakes by Harry Crews (1998)
• The Long Home by William Gay (1999)
• Tideland by Mitch Cullin (2000)
• A Fine Dark Line by Joe R. Lansdale (2000)
• Provinces of Night by William Gay (2000)
• Yonder Stands Your Orphan by Barry Hannah (2001)
• The Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris (2001)
• The Little Friend by Donna Tartt (2002)
• The Choir of Ill Children by Tom Piccirilli (2003)
• Sunset and Sawdust by Joe R. Lansdale (2004)
• Four and Twenty Blackbirds by Cherie Priest (2005)
• Gather at the River: Notes From the Post Millennial South by Hal Crowther (2005)
• November Mourns by Tom Piccirilli (2005)
• Wings to the Kingdom by Cherie Priest (2006)
• Not Flesh 'Nor Feathers and Dreadful Skin by Cherie Priest (2007)
• The Shadows, Kith and Kin and Lost Echoes by Joe R. Lansdale (2007)
• Hume's Fork by Ron Cooper (2007)
• Tennyson by Lesley M.M. Blume (2008)
• Firefly Rain by Richard Dansky ()
• Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl (2009)
• Purple Jesus by Ron Cooper (2010)
• Snakewoman of Little Egypt by Robert Hellenga (2010)
• The Pugilist's Wife by David Armand (Winner of the 2010 George Garrett Fiction Prize) (2011)
• Southern Gods by John Hornor Jacobs (2011)

Films

• The Story of Temple Drake (1933)
• Romance of the Limberlost (1938)
• Son of Dracula (1943)
• Intruder in the Dust (1949)
• The Glass Menagerie (1950)
• A Streetcar Named Desire (1951, Best Picture nom.)
• The Rose Tattoo (1955)
• The Night of the Hunter (1955)
• Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958, Best Picture nom.)
• The Defiant Ones (1958, Best Picture nom.)
• The Long, Hot Summer (1958)
• The Tarnished Angels (1958)
• God's Little Acre (1958)
• The Fugitive Kind (1959)
• The Sound and the Fury (1959)
• Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)
• Desire in the Dust (1960)
• Summer and Smoke (1961)
• To Kill a Mockingbird (1962, Best Picture nom.)
• Sweet Bird of Youth (1962)
• Cape Fear (1962)
• Toys in the Attic (1963)
• Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)
• This Property is Condemned (1966)
• The Chase (1966)
• Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967)
• The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1968)
• The Reivers (1969)
• Last of the Mobile Hot Shots (1970)
• The Liberation of L.B. Jones (1970)
• The Beguiled (1971)
• Deliverance (1972, Best Picture nom.)
• The Sugarland Express (1974)
• Days of Heaven (1978)
• Wise Blood (1979)
• The Beyond (1981)
• Southern Comfort (1981)
• Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1984, television remake)
• Down By Law (1986)
• No Mercy (1986)
• Angel Heart (1987)
• Sweet Bird of Youth (1989, television remake)
• Wild At Heart (1990)
• The Reflecting Skin (1990)
• Scorchers (1991)
• Cape Fear (1991, remake)
• The Ballad of the Sad Cafe (1991)
• My Name Is Mud (1993, music video)
• The Neon Bible (1995)
• The Passion of Darkly Noon (1995)
• Dead Man Walking (1995)
• Bastard Out of Carolina (1996)
• Sling Blade (1996)
• Eve's Bayou (1997)
• Eye of God (1997)
• Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997)
• The Gingerbread Man (1998)
• Wayward Son (1999)
• George Washington (2000)
• The Gift (2000)
• O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
• Two Soldiers (2003, short)
• Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus (2003, doc)
• The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things (2004)
• Undertow (2004)
• A Love Song for Bobby Long (2004)
• Dead Birds (2004)
• The Skeleton Key (2005)
• The King (2005)
• Tideland (2005)
• Loren Cass (2006)
• Things That Hang from Trees (2006)
• The Reaping (2007)
• Black Snake Moan (2007)
• Hounddog (2007)
• No Country for Old Men (2007)
• Midnight Bayou (2009)
• That Evening Sun (2009)
• Provinces of Night, also known as Bloodworth (2010)
• Winter's Bone (2010)

Television

• American Gothic (TV series) (CBS, 1995–1996)
• True Blood (HBO, 2008–)
• The Heart, She Holler (Cartoon Network's late night programming block, Adult Swim 2011–)

Music

• The Legendary Shack Shakers
• Pinebox Serenade
• The Builders and the Butchers
• Ode to Billie Joe
• The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia

See also

• Southern Ontario Gothic
• African American literature
• Southern literature
• Southern Renaissance
• Suburban Gothic
• Tasmanian Gothic
• Magical realism

External links

• The Southern Literary Trail features the major fiction writers from the South during the 20th Century.