Southern Gothicism and Dark Romanticism Since the Southern Gothic movement in literature was originated in late 18th and early 19th century, it shares some similarities with Dark Romanticism such as death, decay, and toxic relationships; however, Southern Gothicism is a genre of literature that has a very distinctive style of writing.
In other words, while some of the main characteristics of Dark Romanticism have human imperfections along with the horrific symbols and themes, the Southern Gothic style employs the use of macabre and ironic events to examine the values of the American South. Flannery O’Conner and William Faulkner are two of the most iconic writers to use this style. In both of these writers’ stories, we can easily identify the use of such events in order to light up the different aspects of southern culture.
Moreover, unlike the Dark Romantics’ writings, Southern Gothic writers focus more on pointing out social issues, such as racism and the condition of whites being superior to all others in authority, power, or status. Then, in the article “Female Gothic Fiction, Grotesque Realities, and Bastard out of Carolina: Dorothy Allison Revises the Southern Gothic,” the author makes the point that a significant element of the Gothic literature is the literary grotesque which includes incongruous, abnormal, “monstrous” characters, situations, and events that are sometimes discussed.
In addition he says, “especially within the American literary tradition, as if it were a synonym for Gothic or, conversely, as if it were something entirely different from Gothic” (Bailey 270). Basically, I think the author’s point is that sometimes people mistakenly think of Southern Gothicism as being the same as Dark Romanticism; however, there are many differences which make each genre unique.
With this being said, even though Dark Romantic and Southern Gothic literature are similar in a way they share gothic themes such as death, decay, and mysterious characters, each of them is unique in a way they differ in eras, writing style and the use of grotesque events. To begin, Southern Gothicism is sometimes referred to as a sub-genre of Gothic literature, for the fact that it includes paranormal, ironic, and uncommon events that help to shape and mold the base of its story line.
However, the stories of this genre was written in a different era, and it differs from Dark Romanticism in a way that it focuses more on highlighting social issues like racism which, I think, is one of the main differences between two genres. In other words, by using horrific themes, ironic incidents, and toxic relationships in their stories, the writers of Southern Gothic genre discover the cultural climate of the South America. In general, the stories of the Southern Gothic genre tell us about the tragic history of slavery which was present during 19th century.
Moreover, while analyzing any kind of genre, it is an important point to pay attention at when and where an author lived and wrote. With this being said, in the article “The Author’s Work as Context: Flannery O’Connor,” it is said that the O’Connor’s settings are most often in the American South, rural or urban, and her characters most often Southerners, white or black. As a result, the subject of O’Conner’s stories is usually what she called “the race business” (Mays 419).
Throughout research, it was an interesting point to notice that even though O’Conner was a humorless and deeply religious person, her stories are characterized by irony, and they can sometimes be hilarious. To take a case in point, while Dark Romanticism took place in 18th century, Southern Gothic genre was born after the civil war, and the south became a platform for stories such as “Everything That Rises Must Converge” by Flannery O’Conner. The story is a great example of he genre since it includes all the characteristics mentioned above, such as ironic incidents, toxic relationships, racial segregation, and etc. In the article “Traumatic Recurrences in White Southern Literature: O’Connor’s “Everything That Rises Must Converge” And Welty’s “Clytie”,” the author says that the O’Connor’s short story published in 1961 “overtly links the dysfunction of a post-Jim Crow era, mother-son relationship, and a traumatic racial encounter to a generational inheritance of historical loss and cultural guilt” (Williamson 750).
In other words, one of the main points of this story is the racial segregation, and the author, by using unique figures of speech and all three types of irony which are verbal, situational, and dramatic, does a great job of showing us what life was like in 19th century. Next, another important and defining characteristic of the Southern Gothic genre is the use of grotesque or macabre events. In the article “What is Southern Gothic Literature? ” the author mentions that one of the key elements of this genre is the grotesque, an element of the narrative that is “irregular, extravagant or fantastic in form”.
Then he writes that, “a grotesque character may possess an exaggerated personality trait or characteristic for the purpose of eliciting both empathy and disgust in the reader” (Volz, par. 3). To put it differently, in Southern Gothic genre, the stories normally concentrate on grotesque themes. Although they may include supernatural elements, they mostly focus on harmed and complex characters. William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” is a great example of Southern Gothic literature in which such events and characters are clearly identified.
Over the years, the story was in the middle of critical analysis, but still “it is virtually impossible to fully “report” the history of the critical discussion of this fascinating story” (Mays 514). From my point of view, one of the reasons is that the story is told through the eyes of an unnamed townsman who describes a woman named Emily, the main character of the story. As a result, many of the story’s problems, with regard to its critical analysis, originate from the limited perspective of the narrator.
Additionally, this issue reminds me of the story “Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street,” in a way that there was the same kind of problem, such as throughout the story we never get the information which is needed in order to understand what made a person to become the way he or she was. Therefore, just like Bartleby, Emily also remains a mystery for me that is left unsolved. Overall, I think that Emily and Bartleby share many similar themes; for example, the way they are described, makes one think that they are people who were already dead.
Finally, while two genres share the themes of death and decay, they differ in their writing style. For example, the environments in which actions take place are very different, and also the tense with which they are written is different. Along the same lines, by analyzing the stories “A Rose for Emily” and “The Cask of Amontillado,” my points will be clearer. In other words, both of the short stories deal with death, and both main characters show narcissistic personalities committing murders in order to satisfy their selfish justifications.
Then, in “The Cask of Amontillado,” Edgar Allen Poe, the author of the story, uses the first person tense which means the narrator is the protagonist, and he focuses more on describing the scenarios than the characters. On the contrary, Faulkner in his story uses the third-person tense, and focuses more on defining the main character through many supporting characters and powerful imagery. Lastly, if we compare and contrast two genres, we will sometimes notice how different the environments in which actions take place in stories are.
For example, in the article “Introduction to the Gothic Tradition,” it is emphasized that, “Action in the Gothic novel tends to take place at night, or at least in a claustrophobic, sunless environment” (Prendergast, par. 12). However, not all stories in The Southern Gothicism take place at night. Additionally, while the events in Dark Romanticism happen in the places like mysterious castles, the events of the Southern Gothic genre may take place on a plantation, broken downtowns, or old slave quarters. To sum up, William Faulkner and Flannery O’Conner are two of the best writers of the Southern Gothic genre.
Both of the authors used a unique style of writing in their stories “A Rose for Emily” and “Everything That Rises Must Converge” to criticize and examine the life of the American south; for example, they use similar examples of irony, grotesque events and southern archetypes. Moreover, as it was claimed in the article “The Evolution of Southern Gothic,” viewpoints vary about what makes a Southern story gothic; however, some things to look for include the supernatural, wincing humor, dreariness, dark obsession, sacrilege, perversion, drug addiction, alcoholism, and character deformity, both mental and physical (Kornegay, par. ).
Specifically, regardless of the fact that Southern Gothicism was inspired by Gothic literature, it has its own style of writing. Also, while the authors of both genres tried to show the darker side of the world that was ignored, each of them does it in different ways. For instance, there is a dark humor in Southern Gothic stories, for the authors expose the issues of society by developing mentally unstable characters, and through them they examine the harm that people can do to each other.
Then, in the article “Genres of Southern Literature,” the author suggests that if we look at nineteenth century southern literature under the headings of thematic or stylistic or plotoriented genres that authors chose during the time, what we see is that the South’s race-based institution of slavery was the driving force behind literary production (Mackethan, par. 3). I agree with the author’s point since as we notice one of the main topics of the Southern literature is the racial segregation.
Then he makes the point that, “Southern literature is substantially recognizable as contingent upon certain identifiers: geographic, social, cultural, political, as well as historical and linguistic contingencies that make up what is known and named as “the South'” (Mackethan, par. 3). In conclusion, for all the reasons and examples that were examined throughout the essay, I believe that even though two genres share so many similarities, they have a lot of differences which makes each genre extraordinary.
