southern ontario gothic

Southern Ontario Gothic is a sub-genre of the Gothic novel genre and a feature of Canadian literature that comes from Southern Ontario. Writers of this sub-genre include Alice Munro, Timothy Findley, Margaret Atwood, Robertson Davies, Jane Urquhart, Marian Engel, James Reaney, Graeme Gibson and Barbara Gowdy. Like the Southern Gothic of American writers such as William Faulkner, Flannery O'Connor and Eudora Welty, Southern Ontario Gothic critiques race, gender, religion, and politics, but in a Southern Ontario context. Southern Ontario Gothic is characterized by a stern realism set against the dour small-town Protestant morality stereotypical of the region, and often has underlying themes of moral hypocrisy. Actions and people that act against humanity, logic, and morality all are portrayed unfavorably, and one or more characters may be suffering from some form of mental illness. Some (but not all) writers of Southern Ontario Gothic use supernatural or magic realist elements. Notable novels of the genre include Robertson's Deptford Trilogy, Findley's Headhunter, The Last of the Crazy People and The Wars, and Atwood's The Blind Assassin, Cat's Eye and Alias Grace. See also United Empire Loyalists, Methodist Rome.

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