View source for American Gothic fiction



'''American gothic fiction''' is a subgenre of [[gothic fiction]]. Elements specific to American Gothic include: [[rationality]] versus the [[irrational]], [[religious fanaticism|puritanism]], [[guilt (emotion)|guilt]], the [[uncanny]] (''das Unheimliche''), [[abhumans|ab-humans]], [[ghosts]], and [[monsters]].

== Analysis of major themes ==
The inability of many Gothic characters to overcome perversity by rational thought is common in American Gothic work.<ref>Allan Lloyd Smith, [https://books.google.com/books?id=ispjxUdq-pwC&pg=PA114 ''American Gothic Fiction: An Introduction''] pp. 65–69 (Continuum International Publishing Group, 2003)</ref> It is not uncommon for a protagonist to be sucked into the realm of madness because of their inclination towards the irrational. A tendency such as this flies in the face of higher reason and seems to mock 18th-century [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] thinking as outlined by ''[[Common Sense (pamphlet)|Common Sense]]'' and ''[[The Age of Reason]]''. Contemporary Gothic themes of mechanism and automation can be interpreted as subverting the popular reliance on rationalism and logic.

[[Puritan]] imagery, particularly that of [[Hell]], acted as potent brain candy for 19th-century authors like [[Edgar Allan Poe]] and [[Nathaniel Hawthorne]].<ref name="A Study of Hawthorne">George Parsons Lathop, [https://books.google.com/books?id=iZ-UPQAACAAJ&dq=lathop+study+of+hawthorne ''A Study of Hawthorne'']. pp. 300–309 (Scholarly Press, 1970)</ref> The dark and nightmarish visions the Puritan culture of condemnation, reinforced by shame and guilt, created a lasting impact on the [[collective consciousness]]. Notions of predestination and [[original sin]] added to the doom and gloom of traditional Puritan values. This perspective and its underlying hold on American society ripened the blossoming of stories like ''[[Rachel Dyer]]'' (the first novel about the [[Salem witch trials]]),<ref>{{cite book | last = Sears | first = Donald A. | title = John Neal | publisher = Twayne Publishers | location = Boston, Massachusetts | year = 1978 | isbn = 978-0-8057-7230-2 | page = 82}}</ref> "[[The Pit and the Pendulum]]", "[[Young Goodman Brown]]", and ''[[The Scarlet Letter]]''.

The dungeons and endless corridors that are a hallmark of European Gothic are far removed from American Gothic, in which castles are replaced with caves. Lloyd-Smith reinterprets ''[[Moby Dick|Moby-Dick]]'' to make this point convincingly.<ref>Allan Lloyd Smith, [https://books.google.com/books?id=ispjxUdq-pwC&pg=PA114 ''American Gothic Fiction: An Introduction''] pp. 79–87 (Continuum International Publishing Group, 2004)</ref> Early settlers were prone to fear linked to the unexplored territory which surrounded, and in some cases, engulfed them. Fear of the unknown stemming from environmental factors like darkness and vastness is notable in [[Charles Brockden Brown]]'s ''[[Edgar Huntly]]''.

The emergence of the "ab-human" in American gothic fiction was closely coupled with the emergence of [[Charles Darwin]]'s theories of evolution.<ref>Allan Lloyd Smith, [https://books.google.com/books?id=ispjxUdq-pwC&pg=PA114&dq=abhuman&lr=&ei=402sSM-XLozaigGsqaD7BA&sig=ACfU3U3bRu-FM23-kZp2bgAlM8GDGvgxAw#PPA114,M1 ''American Gothic Fiction: An Introduction''] page 114 (Continuum International Publishing Group, 2004)</ref> Ideas of evolution or devolution of a species, new biological knowledge, and technological advancement created a fertile environment for many to question their essential humanity. Parallels between humans and other living things on the planet were made obvious by the aforementioned. This is manifest in stories like [[H.P. Lovecraft]]'s "[[The Outsider (short story)|The Outsider]]" and [[Nicholson Baker]]'s "[[Subsoil (short story)|Subsoil]]". Ghosts and monsters are closely related to this theme; they function as the spiritual equivalent of the abhuman and may be evocative of unseen realities, as in ''[[The Bostonians]]''.

[[Julia Kristeva]]'s concepts of [[jouissance]] and [[abjection]] are employed by American Gothic authors such as [[Charlotte Perkins Gilman]].<ref name="books.google.com">Allan Lloyd Smith, [https://books.google.com/books?id=ispjxUdq-pwC&pg=PA114&dq=abhuman&lr=&ei=402sSM-XLozaigGsqaD7BA&sig=ACfU3U3bRu-FM23-kZp2bgAlM8GDGvgxAw#PPA114,M1 ''American Gothic Fiction: An Introduction''] pp. 94–108 (Continuum International Publishing Group, 2004)</ref> Kristeva theorizes that the expulsion of all things defiling, much like a corpse, is a common coping mechanism for humanity.<ref name="books.google.com" /> Gilman's "[[The Yellow Wallpaper]]" exploits this concept. Furthermore, "The Yellow Wallpaper" can be read as a social commentary on the oppressive conditions women suffered in their home lives at the turn of the 20th century.

== Early American Gothic ==
[[File:The Pioneer 1843 Boston.jpg|thumb|The first publication of "[[The Tell-Tale Heart]]" by Edgar Allan Poe in ''The Pioneer'' edited by [[James Russell Lowell]], 1843.]]

Early American Gothic writers were particularly concerned with frontier wilderness anxiety and the lasting effects of a Puritanical society. "[[The Legend of Sleepy Hollow]]" by [[Washington Irving]] is perhaps the most famous example of [[Thirteen Colonies|American Colonial]]-era Gothic fiction. Charles Brockden Brown was deeply affected by these circumstances, as can be seen in ''[[Wieland (novel)|Wieland]]''. That novel inspired ''[[Logan (novel)|Logan]]'' by [[John Neal]],<ref>{{cite book | last = Lease | first = Benjamin | title = That Wild Fellow John Neal and the American Literary Revolution | publisher = University of Chicago Press | location = Chicago, Illinois | year = 1972 | isbn = 9780226469690 | page = 90}}</ref> which is notable for rejecting British Gothic conventions in favor of distinctly American materials.<ref>{{cite journal | last = Welch | first = Ellen Bufford | year = 2021 | title = Literary Nationalism and the Renunciation of the British Gothic Tradition in the Novels of John Neal | url = https://muse.jhu.edu/article/796258 | journal = Early American Literature | volume = 56 | number = 2 | page = 484| doi = 10.1353/eal.2021.0039 | s2cid = 243142175| url-access = subscription }}</ref>

Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Washington Irving are often grouped together.<ref name="A Study of Hawthorne" /> They present impressive, albeit disturbing, portraits of the human experience. Poe accomplished this through the window of a diseased and depressive fascination with the morose, Irving with the keen charm of a masterful storyteller, and Hawthorne with familial bonds to past abominations like the [[Salem Witch Trials]] which he addresses in "The Custom House."

== Southern American Gothic ==
{{Main|Southern Gothic}}

The Southern Gothic includes stories set in the [[Southern United States]], particularly following the [[American Civil War|Civil War]] and set in the economic and cultural decline that engulfed the region. Southern Gothic stories tend to focus on the decaying economic, educational and living standards of the [[Reconstruction era|post–Civil War South]]. There is often a heavy emphasis on race and class relations, while the rural environment provides an effective substitute for traditional Old World Gothic settings; for example, plantation estates fill the role of European castles. Some writers of Southern Gothic include [[William Faulkner]], [[Flannery O'Connor]] and [[Eudora Welty]].

== New American Gothic ==
Authors who fall under the category of "New American Gothic" include: [[Flannery O'Connor]], [[John Hawkes (novelist)|John Hawkes]], [[J. D. Salinger]], and [[Shirley Jackson]]. These writers rely on the use of private worlds to weave their Gothic intrigue, as such the destruction of the family unit is commonplace in the New American Gothic. The psyche becomes the setting in the microcosms this particular brand of horror creates.<ref>Malin, Irving. [https://books.google.com/books?id=LrU6AAAAIAAJ&q=irving+malin+new+american+gothic&dq=irving+malin+new+american+gothic "New American Gothic"] pp. 5-12 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois Press, 1962)</ref> Typically, these stories have a sort of "[[antihero]]"; an anxiety-riddled individual of little admirable strength. These features are conspicuous in stories such as "[[A Good Man is Hard to Find]]", "[[The Laughing Man (short story)|The Laughing Man]]", ''[[Wise Blood]]'', ''[[The Lime Twig]]'', ''[[The Haunting of Hill House]]'', and ''The Beetle Leg''.

'''''Note''': Flannery O'Connor is cross-referenced as a Southern Gothic author.''

== Prominent examples ==
{{Div col}}
* ''[[Wieland (novel)|Wieland]]'' (1798) by [[Charles Brockden Brown]]
* ''[[Edgar Huntly]]'' (1799) by [[Charles Brockden Brown]]
* "[[The Legend of Sleepy Hollow]]" (1820) by [[Washington Irving]]
* "[[Young Goodman Brown]]" (1835) by [[Nathaniel Hawthorne]]
* "[[The Minister's Black Veil]]" (1836) by [[Nathaniel Hawthorne]]
* ''[[The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket]]'' (1838) by [[Edgar Allan Poe]]
* "[[The Fall of the House of Usher]]" (1839) by [[Edgar Allan Poe]] ([[s:The Fall of the House of Usher|Full text]] at [[Wikisource]])
* "[[The Tell-Tale Heart]]" (1843) by [[Edgar Allan Poe]] ([[s:The Tell-Tale Heart|Full text]] at [[Wikisource]])
* ''[[The House of the Seven Gables]]'' (1851) by [[Nathaniel Hawthorne]]
* ''[[Moby-Dick]]'' (1851) by [[Herman Melville]]
* "[[The Yellow Wallpaper]]" (1892) by [[Charlotte Perkins Gilman]] ([https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1952 Full text] at [[Project Gutenberg]])
* "[[Afterward (short story)]]" (1910) by [[Edith Wharton]] ([http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/Afte.shtml Full Text])
* "[[The Rats in the Walls]]" (1924) by [[H. P. Lovecraft]]
* ''[[Absalom, Absalom!]]'' (1936) by [[William Faulkner]]
* "[[The Lottery]]" (1948) by [[Shirley Jackson]]
* ''[[The Haunting of Hill House]]'' (1959) by [[Shirley Jackson]]
* ''[[We Have Always Lived in the Castle]]'' (1962) by [[Shirley Jackson]]
* ''[[Child of God]]'' (1973) by [[Cormac McCarthy]]
* ''[[Interview with the Vampire]]'' (1976) by [[Anne Rice]]
* ''[[The Shining (novel)|The Shining]]'' (1977) by [[Stephen King]]
* ''[[Beloved (novel)|Beloved]]'' (1987) by [[Toni Morrison]]
* ''[[House of Leaves]]'' (2000) by [[Mark Z. Danielewski]]
{{Div col end}}

== References ==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
* Lenhardt, Corinna (2020). ''[[Savage Horrors: The Intrinsic Raciality of the American Gothic]]''. transcript publishing.
* Oates, Joyce Carol, ed. (1996). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=PArq_vYEy3UC American Gothic Tales]''. Plume.
* Weinstock, Jeffrey Andrew (2017). ''The Cambridge Companion to American Gothic''. [[Cambridge University Press]].

{{Gothic}}
{{Horror fiction}}
{{Fantasy fiction}}

[[Category:American gothic fiction| ]]
[[Category:American literature]]

{{Wikipedia attribution|original_title=American Gothic fiction|access_date=2026-02-25}}