Southern Gothic

The GRE often asks you to identify a name that does not belong in specific group. So for example, they may say, "Which of the following is not a graveyard poet." Knowing which authors are considered Southern Gothic (and the characteristics of the group) would be good for this kind of question.

a sub-genre of the Gothic writing style, unique to American literature. Like its parent genre, it relies on supernatural, ironic or unusual events to guide the plot. Unlike its predecessor, it uses these tools not for the sake of suspense, but to explore social issues and reveal the cultural character of the South.

The Southern Gothic author usually avoids perpetuating antebellum stereotypes such as the contented slave, the demure Southern belle, the chivalrous gentleman and the righteous Christian preacher. Instead, the writer takes classic Gothic archetypes, such as the damsel in distress or the heroic knight, and portrays them in a modern and realistic manner, transforming them into a spiteful, reclusive spinster or a white-suited, fan-brandishing lawyer with ulterior motives.

One of the most notable features of the Southern Gothic is the grotesque, a stock character who possesses some cringe-inducing qualities, typically bigotry and self-righteousness, but enough good traits that the reader finds himself empathizing nevertheless. Deeply flawed characters, while often disturbing to read about, provide the author with greater narrative range and more opportunities to highlight unpleasant aspects in Southern culture without moralizing. Tennessee Williams described Southern Gothic as a style that captured "an intuition, of an underlying dreadfulness in modern experience."