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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~From Wikipedia: Southern Gothic is a subgenre 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 American South.
The Southern Gothic author usually avoids perpetuating Antebellum stereotypes like the contented slave, the demure Southern belle, the chivalrous gentleman, or 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 more modern and realistic manner — transforming them into, for example, a spiteful and 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" — this includes situations, places, or stock characters that often possess some cringe-inducing qualities, typically racial bigotry and egotistical self-righteousness — but enough good traits that readers find themselves interested nevertheless. While often disturbing, Southern Gothic authors commonly use deeply flawed, grotesque characters for greater narrative range and more opportunities to highlight unpleasant aspects of Southern culture, without being too literal or appearing to be overly moralistic.
This genre of writing is seen in the work of such famous Southern writers as William Faulkner, Flannery O'Connor, Harry Crews, Lee Smith, Lewis Nordan, Barry Hannah, Carson McCullers, Erskine Caldwell, Eudora Welty, Harper Lee, Truman Capote, Tennessee Williams, and Cormac McCarthy among others. Tennessee Williams described Southern Gothic as a style that captured "an intuition, of an underlying dreadfulness in modern experience."
"It's like obscenity; I can't define it, but I know it when I see it."
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Southern Gothic Music: After finding not much in the way of clarity, googling this little phrase, this seemed most fitting with what I'm going for here:
" Today, the leading flag bearer of Southern rock is the group Drive-By Truckers, whose chronicles of everyday life in the South ring true. It's unapologetic, gritty, reality-based triple-guitar, post-punk, rootsy rock 'n' roll. They first made me take notice with their fourth work, Southern Rock Opera, a brilliant two-CD concept album about Lynyrd Skynyrd. The follow-up Decoration Day and the current The Dirty South confirm their place as supremely confident journeymen rockers and master songwriters. It's like a modern-day synthesis of The Band and Bruce Springsteen. Some song titles provide a clue and show why the Truckers are writing with honesty, just the way the best country writers are: "Hell No, I Ain't Happy," "Loaded Gun in the Closet," "Plastic Flowers on the Highway," "Women Without Whiskey," "Carl Perkins' Cadillac, " "Dead, Drunk and Naked." Some people call this Southern Gothic music. I think it pretty much stands proudly on its own." - from right here: http://www.cmt.com/news/articles/1492920/10212004/lynyrd_sky nyrd.jhtml
Shit, I LOVE Skynyrd AND the Truckers!! Aren't they both my friends yet? Hmmm...
Personally, the very first time I heard Johnny Dowd, I christened it Southern Gothic. I love him so much, and finally he's my FRIEND!Note: Hey man, this is a Work In Progress! -SG