Irony In Southern Gothic Literature

Gothicism is a representative of the South’s nobility eventually being defeated after the American Civil War. The characterization of Miss. Strangeworth symbolizes the gothic elements of the South’s “higher society” before the Civil War. The non-participating

“John B McLemore lives in Shittown, Alabama,” Brian Reed quoted. Many people today can relate to some of the problems John faces in S-Town. Most of these problems are derived from southern gothic characteristics within the podcast. The podcast uses many different southern gothic characteristics in order to make it more interesting. Many of the examples of these characteristics are more modern so that they relate to our current society. S-Town is a piece of contemporary Southern Gothic Literature because of its use of social issues, irony, and outsiders.

Southern gothic is a type of literature that focuses on the harsh conflicts of violence and racism, which is observed in the perspective of black and white individuals. Some of the most familiar southern authors are William Faulkner, Flannery O’Connor, and Cormac McCarthy. One author in particular, Flannery O’Connor, is a remarkable author, who directly reflects upon southern grotesque within her two short stories, “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and “Revelation.” These two short stories are very similar to each other, which is why I believe that O’Connor often writes with violent characters to expose real violence in the world while tying them in with a particular spiritual insight.

As Brian and John B. Mclemore walk through the maze John had built himself, John exclaims “It’s kind of funny being lost in something you designed yourself.” This ironic statement perfectly describes the life of John in this piece of southern gothic literature. The story of John’s eccentric life is told spectacularly told by Brian Reed in Stown. Stown’s southern setting and values makes it a piece of southern gothic literature, but Stown goes further and relates to today making it more contemporary. S-town is a contemporary piece of southern gothic literature because of the social issues, decay, and irony it presents throughout.

“You’re beginning to figure it out now, aren’t you?”, John asks Brian after spending time together writing a piece of southern gothic literature, which turns out to become a piece of more contemporary southern gothic literature. In southern gothic literature a majority of people think of the aged definition, but Stown shows us the more contemporary piece of writing. Mostly every element of southern gothic literature matches the classic definition, but the irony, outsiders, and social issues have a more contemporary definition. Stown is a piece of contemporary Southern Gothic Literature as a result of the elements of irony, outsiders, and social issues.

Southern Gothic literature is a sub-genre of the Gothic writing style. It is unique to Southern America. Southern gothic style is a style of writing that engages very ugly and ironic events to study the value of the American south and its people. In this essay, I’m going to go over each story and give some details about the authors and their backgrounds. On one page, I will be comparing and contrasting all three stories. I will show how they’re similar through tone, plot, and scene in the story. And at the end, I am going to describe the three stories; “A Rose for Emilycomma inside quotes”, “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, and “Sanctuary”. Period inside quotes All of these short stories are good examples of southern gothic writing, because

Without doubt, Edgar Allan Poe’s story is one of the author’s masterpiece. The story is an exhibit of artistic genius with various literary features well incorporated. Among them, irony, defined as, “A figure of speech which is a contradiction or incongruity between what is expected and what actually occurs”, is the most evident. Allan Poe demonstrates the use of various types of irony throughout the play, which he uses to pass the intended message to the audience.

Gothic literature is having a setting that is spooky and dark. In Joyce Carol Oates’s “Where is Here” contains a great example of Gothic Literature due to the story being spooky and having strange things happen. One example that proves it is a Gothic Literature in Oates’s story is, “one November evening at dusk, the doorbell rang, and the father went to answer it, and there on his doorstep stood a man he had never seen before (69)”. This sentence proves its Gothic Literature since it contains a strange or violent plot and a dramatic description. Therefore “Where is Here” is a Gothic Literature because it contains these things that create a spooky or chilling story. Gothic Literature is one of the crucial important genre in the Unit one “Allure of fear”. (Angelee Chea)

In Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, irony is used to convey information and it contributes to the overall theme of the novel. Written during the era of McCarthyism, Fahrenheit 451 is about a society where books are illegal. This society believes that being intellectual is bad and that a lot of things that are easily accessible today should be censored. The overall message of the book is that censorship is not beneficial to society, and that it could cause great harm to one’s intelligence and social abilities. An analysis of irony in Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury shows that this literary technique is effective in contributing to the overall theme of the novel because it gives more than one perspective on how censorship can negatively affect

The Southern Gothic Genre is used to demonstrate the moral blindness of the south. This Genre includes three major traits: themes, macabre situations, and disturbed personalities. These traits can be found in stories like ¨A Good Man is Hard to Find¨ by Flannery O'Connor, ¨The Possibility of Evil¨ by Shirley Jackson, and ¨A Rose for Emily¨ by William Faulkner. These traits are shown in all of these pieces of literature through the character's moral blindness and their personalities towards others.

Brown does not rely on most of the conventions of the gothic literature. Brown does use conventions of a Gothic genre. Brown follows the topics shared in an American Gothic novel. Allan Lloyd-Smith talks about how many American Gothic writers would exchange key aspects that can be seen in a European gothic novel. For example, instead of a castle the setting of the novel will include a remote house in the country side away from most of the population. Brown does not include a great deal of the setting but uses atmosphere and suspense to inflict fear into his readers. Brown stays away from the European gothic conventions discussed in “The Gothic Novel”. Brown does not include castles, dungeon and does not place his gothic novel in the medieval

When you think of Southern Gothic literature the first thing that comes to mind is death. Gothic literature shows constant signs of death, unnatural deaths, or a series of deaths. All of which contribute to making the atmosphere of the story more horrifying. In other words death in Gothic literature is associated with the unknown or the

Southern Gothic literature has rooted itself in American culture and created several classic short stories that have pushed literary boundaries and minds. Among the most influential of these Southern Gothic stories is “A Rose for Emily”, by William Faulkner; “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, and “Good Country People”, both by Flannery O’Connor. After first discussing what characteristics make up the genre of Southern Gothic, each of these stories will be evaluated and discussed in terms of what makes each of them a prime example of Southern Gothic literature.

Southern Gothic literature, which is a sub-genre of the Gothic writing style, is unique to the American South. Southern Gothic literature has many of the same aspects as Gothic literature; it focuses on topics such as death, madness, and the super natural as well has having many mystical, bizarre, violent, and grotesque aspects. These tools are used "to explore social issues and reveal the cultural character of the American South (Wikipedia)."

Throughout the course of history, literature has gone through considerable changes. Dating back to its humble beginnings in folklore, fables, and storytelling all the way up to the scientific books and dramatic novels of today. Literature is arguably the centerpiece of all mankind. It is useful for record keeping, education, and bringing cultures and societies together. It has allowed us to expand our minds by painting a picture of the beautiful places this world has to offer outside of our corners of the earth. One genre of literature I find especially intriguing is Southern Gothic Literature. It is a subclass of gothic fiction, specifically set