Abstract
Gothic literature has long intertwined monstrosity and femininity. The villainy perpetrated by and upon women reflects their stunted roles within a culture which has been shaped by men. Southern Gothic literature generally eschews the supernatural to explore the grotesque in everyday life. Bodies, emotions, and buildings are all potentially grotesque, therefore monstrous, through association with femininity. Southern Gothic explores the intersections of race, class, and family relationships which underpin genteel culture. From their debased position, monstrous women have the power to shred their communities and expose their corrupt foundations. The degree to which women embrace or reject a subject position labeled ‘monstrous’ by a culture that silences them is a key theme of Southern Gothic.
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Notes
- 1.
Although ‘tarn’ now describes small mountain lakes across the globe, in Poe’s time the word referred only to bodies of water in Northern England. Oxford English Dictionary.
- 2.
In the way that she takes care of her father and siblings, Welty’s Clytie might be considered a mother figure, although their brusque treatment of her aligns her more with the role of servant.
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Mallonee, S. M. (2005). A summer to Pardon: Southern Gothic and the family in Janis Owens’s Myra Sims. In Women of Florida fiction: Essays on twelve sunshine state writers (pp. 93–100). Print. An examination of a contemporary writer whose title character’s madness reflects the social and civil unrest in the South.
Moers, E. (1976). Literary women. New York: Doubleday. Print. The foundational text of feminist Gothic studies.
Showalter, E. (1991). Sister’s choice: Traditions and change in American women’s writing. London: Clarendon. Print. An important study linking American women’s writing with feminism and with the Gothic.
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Donovan-Condron, K. (2016). Twisted Sisters: The Monstrous Women of Southern Gothic. In: Castillo Street, S., Crow, C. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of the Southern Gothic. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-47774-3_26
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