AML 2410: Issues in American Literature and Culture | "Southern Gothic"
University of Florida
Semester: Fall 2018
Class Meetings: T (3:00 - 4:55pm) R (3:00 – 3:50pm)
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“Anything that comes out of the South is going to be called grotesque by the Northern reader, unless it is grotesque, in which case it is going to be called realistic.” – Flannery O’Connor
Merging elements of mystery, dread, and the supernatural from the Gothic traditions of Europe with the strange and turbulent landscape of the American South, Southern Gothic writers of the early 20th century crafted a world of crumbling plantations, looming church steeples, urban decay, and treacherous swamps that is all too familiar to anyone who has ever called the South home. Re-scripting romanticized depictions of the antebellum South, Southern Gothic uses both magic and mayhem to focus in on the South’s systemic poverty, violence, racism, and ostracizing of any and all who do not easily fit into traditional Southern culture. Through reading a selection of Southern Gothic texts, this course will interrogate the ghosts that occupy the swamps and cotton fields of the American South, from the specter of slavery to its morally-bankrupt aristocracy to the darker aspects of the religious oppression that led O’Connor to deem the South “Christ-haunted.” By the end of this course, students will arrive at a better understanding and appreciation of the sociopolitical work that Southern Gothic performs by engaging with Southern Gothic texts from both Southern and Northern perspectives. Readings will include works by Edgar Allan Poe, Zora Neale Hurston, Flannery O’Connor, William Faulkner, Harriet Jacobs, Truman Capote, Eudora Welty, Toni Morrison, and Karen Russell. Further, we will examine representations of the South as Gothic in film (Gone With The Wind; Vernon, Florida, etc.) and engage with documentaries, photographs, and music that invoke Southern Gothicism. |
INSTRUCTOR CONTACT INFORMATION:
Office Location: Turlington 4367 Office Hours: MW Period 5 or by appointment Email: [email protected] TEXTBOOKS:
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