Southern Gothic literature is a genre of Southern writing. The stories often focus on grotesque themes. While it may include supernatural elements, it mainly focuses on damaged, even delusional, characters.

Southern Gothic literature was inspired by early Gothic writing, a genre that was prominent in 18th-century England.

In Gothic literature, the authors wanted to expose the problems they saw in society. The authors wrote fiction but included supernatural and romantic elements.

They were often stories of hauntings, death, darkness and insanity. Some of the more well-known examples of this genre are Frankenstein and Dracula.

While Gothic writing initially began in England, American Gothic literature began in the 19th century, with short stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe. Nathaniel Hawthorne also writes with an understanding of mystery, and his personalities are very flawed.

There are some supernatural elements to his writings and many questions about the society that they represent. Poe's short stories usually focus on death, but he tells the tale of death with dark humour and an intention to expose the complexness of his characters and society.

Writers, such as William Faulkner, began writing a more specifically Southern form of American Gothic in the 1920s. However, the Southern Gothic genre reached its height in popularity in the 1940s-1960s.

The authors investigated the behaviours of people and the social order of the South. Through their stories, the authors hoped to show that the social order was unstable, and the truths behind it were disturbing.

The authors work to point out the truths of Southern culture and its moral shortcomings. The themes of this genre are formulated around these goals.

The stories of Southern Gothic are, of course, set in the South. They may take place on a plantation, in old slave quarters or in broken-down towns. There are many Southern elements in the stories, including dialect, habits and personalities. The history of the South is represented through the settings of the stories.

The plots of Southern Gothic tales can be disturbing and some do include supernatural elements. They often contain ironic events as a writing style. Many of the events contained in the stories are linked to racism, violence and poverty.