| "> | | | | Checkmate. |
| Southern Gothic is an American subgenre of the | | | | Now that we've got a sense of what the genre's all |
| Gothic style, which is probably most familiar to you | | | | about, let's do a little comparison. One of America's |
| from the Brontë sisters of Victorian England. | | | | most widely-read and beloved Southern Gothic |
| (No, we're not talking Hot Topic here.) Like its | | | | novels is To Kill a Mockingbird, which chronicles the |
| European progenitor, the Southern Gothic style relies | | | | timid childhood interactions of Scout and Jem Finch |
| heavily on the supernatural - only with less "O, | | | | with the local social outcast, Boo Radley. This book |
| Heathcliffe!" and more "Oh no, racism!" (Unlike Gothic | | | | may not strike you as particularly gothic, especially if |
| novels, Southern Gothic novels are more interested in | | | | you grew up wanting to befriend Jem and Scout |
| uncovering social crimes and injustices than being | | | | (and possibly even Boo), or to have Atticus for a |
| gloomy for gloomy's sake.) Elements of the | | | | dad, but technically speaking, it fits. Let's take a look |
| grotesque are also common to both genres, but can | | | | at those criteria again. |
| take the form of actual bodily gore or just extremely | | | | |
| flawed characters that are somehow tolerable | | | | 1. The supernatural. Okay, so Mockingbird isn't exactly |
| enough to remain interesting. (See also: "O, | | | | supernatural, but narrated through the eyes of a |
| Heathcliffe!") | | | | terrified six-year old, it might as well be. Scary guy |
| William Faulkner is known to have been especially | | | | locked in his house for decades because he probably |
| good with the Southern Gothic style, and many | | | | stabbed his dad in the leg with scissors? It ain't |
| American children read his eerie and disgusting "A | | | | natural, that's for sure. The only thing keeping Boo |
| Rose for Emily" as early as junior high school. This | | | | from becoming a full-blown Emily Grierson is the fact |
| short story, which starts with a funeral and ends | | | | that he isn't hiding any bodies - that we know of. |
| with the discovery of a decades-old corpse, | | | | 2. Injustice. Boy howdy! Almost every character in |
| reminisces on the life of Miss Emily Grierson, the | | | | the novel is at least somewhat racist, including our |
| recently deceased town spinster. As it turns out, her | | | | lovable narrator from time to time. The plot centers |
| dad was a bit overbearing, and though we don't | | | | around the trial of Tom Robinson, a black man who is |
| know if there was any abuse involved, let's just say | | | | wrongly accused - and ultimately convicted - of |
| she didn't exactly get to break her curfew until she | | | | raping a white woman - who concocted the story to |
| was about 35. When the old man finally meets his | | | | hide her crush on Tom from an abusive father. When |
| maker, Emily refuses to admit he is dead or leave | | | | Tom tries to escape prison, he is shot no less than |
| the house for three days - which wouldn't be so | | | | seventeen times. You know, just in case. |
| creepy if his decaying body weren't still in it. | | | | 3. The grotesque. While To Kill a Mockingbird isn't |
| The even creepier part, however, is that this isn't the | | | | gory, some of its characters can be downright foul. |
| same corpse that turns up in Emily's house at the | | | | Mrs. Dubose is a great example of a grotesque |
| end of the book; that one belonged to her once and | | | | character; she's a humorless old bigot with an |
| short-term boyfriend, who wined her, dined her, and | | | | unnecessarily possessive attitude toward her |
| tried to bail on her a few years after her dad died. | | | | camellias, but since we later find out she's trying to |
| Boy did he pick the wrong woman. While Emily is | | | | kick a nasty morphine addiction, we end up feeling |
| clearly demented, her dad's mistreatment and the | | | | kind of bad for her. Sometimes, a drug habit or an |
| resulting psychological damage nevertheless make her | | | | overbearing father is all it takes. |
| a sympathetic character. So sympathetic, in fact, that | | | | So while the two stories may seem very different at |
| the townspeople help cover the murder by spreading | | | | first glance, they share a particular combination of |
| lime around her house when it starts to smell. | | | | gothic elements that allows them to unglamorously |
| (WON'T you BE my NEIGH-BOR!) So let's recap just | | | | explore social and cultural issues of the South - |
| how "A Rose for Emily" stacks up as a Southern | | | | whether they be racism and bigotry or simply the |
| Gothic novel. Death? Check. Injustice? Check. The | | | | outdatedness of the "Southern Belle" approach to |
| grotesque? Double check. A scary shut-in with a | | | | dating. You decide which is scarier. |
| mysterious past in a seemingly haunted house? | | | | |