This post if for freshmen only.

Southern Gothic

Literary Tradition

Gothic literature is fiction in which strange, gloomy settings and mysterious, violent, often supernatural events create suspense and terror. Southern gothic literature uses gothic motifs to explore social issues and reveal the cultural character of the American South.

Following are a few characteristics of gothic and southern gothic literature:

1. The gothic novel tries to evoke chilling terror and gloom by exploiting mystery and horror. Gothic is about haunting and possession.  We are supposed to feel a chill at some point in the story, and this emotional response is in part the point of the gothic experience. Paradoxically, this fear is a source of pleasure.  "Tis so appalling--it exhilarates," Emily Dickinson says in a poem.
2. In a Gothic work, there is usually confusion about good and evil. What does ‘good’ actually mean? What about ‘evil’? And how can we tell the difference?
3. Gothic reveals a fear of institutions, such as religion, education, or marriage.
4. Gothic shows the dark and hidden side of things. It rips open the lies and shows a world of cruelty, lust, perversion, and crime hidden beneath society’s rules and customs.
5. Gothic tears through censorship and explodes hypocrisies. It exposes the world as a corrupt, reeking place.
6. Gothic is a reaction to the conventional, common sense, and enlightened world. If society is supposed to be orderly and sensible, gothic shows how it really isn’t.
7. Southern gothic tips stereotypes on their side and kicks them in the gut. Sweet Southern belles are crafty and greedy, chivalrous gentlemen are sneaky and perverse, and righteous preachers are manipulative and evil.

Your task: We've tackled several short stories that can be considered southern gothic - "An Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge," "Good Country People" and "A Rose for Emily." We also viewed Night of the Hunter - again, classic Southern Gothic. Select one of the stories, and in a paragraph explain how one aspect of the story/film meets one of the criteria listed above. 

Be sure that your response is thoughtful and thorough and includes a cited quotation. Keep in mind all of the elements of a good paragraph: topic sentence, set-up, cited quotation, explanation (claim - evidence - warrant). Write in formal third person. Post your paragraphs in the comments below. Include you name and period.

The Weight of Darkness in Night of the Hunter

This entry if for freshmen only.

Here's an idea I'd like you to play with. It has to do with the balance of light and dark - about the balance of positive and negative shapes (positive being the dark spaces, the spaces where somethig IS; negative being the light spaces, the spaces where something ISN'T). There's something about them in this movie.

In this shot, the dark is the positive space - a bird, a cage, a window pane.  The light is the negative space - nothing. Okay. Negative and positive space. That's idea number one.

Idea number two: balance.  Balance is when the right side is given roughly the same 'wieght' as the left side, or the top and bottom. There are two kinds of aesthetic balance. First, there's symmetrical. That's when one side looks like the other - they are, to a large degree - mirror images of one another. Like this...

 

Then there's asymmetrical balance. This is when two sides are balanced, but by different sized shapes. Like this...

Idea three: contrast - the difference between the dark and the light. The lower the contrast, the more shades of gray there is. Like this shot from The Abominable Snowman...

The higher the contrast, the fewer shades of gray there are, and the more of sharp diference there is between the light and the dark. Like this shot from Bride of Frankenstein...

So there you have it. Three ideas:

1. negative and positive space
2. balance
3. contrast

So here's what I would like you to do. Just look at the following images. Take your time.

Now look at the following pairs of images. Most come one right after the other in the film. Again, take your time.

  

Now go back and look at them again, this time considering negative and positive space, balance, and contrast.

 

Finally, here's the question you need to answer. How do the filmmakers use negative and positive space, balance, and contrast to create meaning? In other words, what ideas are communicated in these frames using negative and positive space, balance, and contrast? Pick one example and explain. Post your response in the comments secion below. The rules of grammar, mechanics, and spelling apply. Be thoughtful and thorough in your response.

And good luck.

As always, feel free to go above and beyond by responding to your peers' comments. (Extra credit is available for thoughtful and insightful extra comments in which you discuss your peers' comments. Please post all of your additional comments under separate posts.)

Southern Gothic

This post if for freshmen only.

Southern Gothic

Literary Tradition

Gothic literature is fiction in which strange, gloomy settings and mysterious, violent, often supernatural events create suspense and terror. Southern gothic literature uses gothic motifs to explore social issues and reveal the cultural character of the American South.

Following are a few characteristics of gothic and southern gothic literature:

1. The gothic novel tries to evoke chilling terror and gloom by exploiting mystery and horror. Gothic is about haunting and possession.  We are supposed to feel a chill at some point in the story, and this emotional response is in part the point of the gothic experience. Paradoxically, this fear is a source of pleasure.  "Tis so appalling--it exhilarates," Emily Dickinson says in a poem.
2. In a Gothic work, there is usually confusion about good and evil. What does ‘good’ actually mean? What about ‘evil’? And how can we tell the difference?
3. Gothic reveals a fear of institutions, such as religion, education, or marriage.
4. Gothic shows the dark and hidden side of things. It rips open the lies and shows a world of cruelty, lust, perversion, and crime hidden beneath society’s rules and customs.
5. Gothic tears through censorship and explodes hypocrisies. It exposes the world as a corrupt, reeking place.
6. Gothic is a reaction to the conventional, common sense, and enlightened world. If society is supposed to be orderly and sensible, gothic shows how it really isn’t.
7. Southern gothic tips stereotypes on their side and kicks them in the gut. Sweet Southern belles are crafty and greedy, chivalrous gentlemen are sneaky and perverse, and righteous preachers are manipulative and evil.

Your task: We've tackled three short stories that can be considered southern gothic - "The Lottery," "An Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge," "Good Country People" and "A Rose for Emily." Select one of the stories, and in a paragraph explain how one aspect of the story meets one of the criteria listed above.  Be sure that your response is thoughtful and thorough and includes a cited quotation. Keep in mind all of the elements of a good paragraph: topic sentence, set-up, quotation, explanation.

 

Night of the Hunter

This entry if for freshmen only.

I've been struggling with an idea, and I just can't wrap my head around it enough to present it to you. It has to do with the balance of light and dark - about the balance of positive and negative shapes (positive being the dark spaces, the spaces where somethig IS; negative being the light spaces, the spaces where something ISN'T). There's something about them in this movie.

There's an artistic princial called 'balance.' Balance is when the right side is given roughly the same 'wieght' as the left side, or the top and bottom. There are two kinds of aesthetic balance. There's symmetrical. That's when one side looks like the other - they are, to a large degree - mirror images of one another.

 

Then there's asymmetrical balance. This is when two sides are balanced, but by different sized shapes.

But even this idea of balance doesn't cover all the bases of what I'm trying to grasp at. I don't know. There's just something about the images of the film. There's almost no gray - it truly is a nearly all black and white movie.

Here's what I would like you to do. Just look at the following images. Take your time.

Now look at the following pairs of images. Most come one right after the other in the film. Again, take your time.

  

 

 

 

Okay. What's going on here? What's going on in terms of balance, positive and negative space, aesthetic tension vs. dramatic tension? Help me out. We need some theories on the subject...

Here's my quesiton, I guess: How does the visual balance of the film (left and right, up and down, dark and light) help create that idea of good versus evil? This is no easy task, I know. This is a tough one. There are no wrong answers here. I'm not sure I even have an answer myself, but there's SOMETHING going on here.

Here's another way of thinking about it: What meaning or message do each of these images make for us as audience goers? Don't generalize. Discuss one at a time, or discuss one pair at a time. Be SPECIFIC.

Post your response in the comments secion below. The rules of grammar, mechanics, and spelling apply. Be thoughtful and thorough in your response.

And good luck.

As always, feel free to go above and beyond by responding to your peers' comments. (Extra credit is available for thoughtful and insightful extra comments. Please post all of your additional comments under separate posts.)