The Characteristics of New Southern Gothic Writing

Classic Southern Gothic literature focuses on grotesque or scary themes and often includes supernatural elements such as ghosts. Well-known authors in this genre are Tennessee Williams, William Faulkner, and Flannery O'Connor. Over the years this genre has evolved, as award-winning author and poet Darlyn Finch Kuhn explains. In new Southern Gothic stories, the scary elements have shifted from the dead to the living. Another change is that authors writing in this genre aren't necessarily from the...