Only a surface reading could dub these novels “escapist ” to read them closely is to remember the bloody building blocks of our historically haunted society. I see these markers in every one of the books below, including two that feature Gothic in a Latin American historical context. The second is race, or fear of the other, which becomes even more pronounced in the Southern Gothic narrative.” This return of the repressed usually calls into question the notion of the American Dream, and wreaks havoc on the present. “The first is the return of ideas, brutal realities, and anxieties that have been repressed, especially those related to the dichotomies on which the country was founded (e.g. Here’s a quick definition of what Gothic fiction does, courtesy of Faye Snowden’s wonderful article: “Through stories of transgression and depictions of the grotesque, evokes anxiety in the reader, leaving them to question society’s institutions, religions, politics, familial and other relationships…” While European Gothic novels mostly featured women in distress in dilapidated houses, Snowden distinguishes two particularly American evolutions to Gothic fiction once it crosses the pond in the 19th century: The Gothic Revival continues! And this year, Southern Gothic joins the fold in our roundup of the most haunted, atmospheric stories of 2022.
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