A study of the literary grotesque and motherhood: The Southern woman's search for love

This dissertation focuses on the Gothic elements that help to shape and define Southern literature and how these elements are incorporated into Southern literature through overt use of the grotesque by Southern authors whose themes and styles have influenced me and influenced the traditions from which my novel springs. After exploring the foundations of what may be loosely termed the “Southern Grotesque,” I discuss two themes that have played major roles in the evolution of Southern fiction which centers on women and the roles they play in Southern society: coming-of-age themes and motherhood themes. Coming-of-age themes trace the lives of adolescent girls who grow up in Southern culture, come of age spiritually in the South, and search for identity, while motherhood themes track the influence (both productive and destructive) of Southern women who are thrust into motherhood. This essay also makes connections among the authors of Southern literature who have influenced my writing—in particular, Zora Neale Hurston, William Faulkner, Carson McCullers, Flannery O'Connor, Alice Walker, and Toni Morrison—and the traditions that influenced the creation of my novel. I also discuss how my characters' search for maternal love, though similar in many ways, is distinctly different from the portrayal of the experiences of earlier twentieth-century Southern belles and the subsequent experiences of African-American girls.