Slavery and Race in Southern Gothic
southern-gothic--kafka-and-moby-dick--moby-dick--writer-s-inspiration
The South was a society built on slavery and racial oppression. Before the Civil War, the South's economy, its social values, even its geography were determined by slavery and racial oppression.
You can't really talk about the South without talking about that history, and Southern Gothic writers are no exception. These writers are all about asking tough questions: How did slavery and race affect the values of Southern society? In what ways did its history of racial oppression corrupt the South? How did the legacy of slavery continue to haunt the South even after the Civil War?
Shmoops:
Sutpen, a cruel slave-owner in William Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom! pits his black slaves against one another in this quotation (Quote #2) from the novel.
Colonel Sartoris in William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" is a pretty racist dude. In fact, he's in charge of making up edicts and laws that demean African Americans—as we can see in this excerpt from the story (Quote #2).