Good morning Dr.

Holt,

It’s been a little bit since our last peer review meeting. In any case, there is work that still needs

to be done before this component of the Capstone project is sufficiently complete. Since we’ve

last done peer editing, I’ve written a bit about the rational/humanist connection between Greek

mythology and the Southern Gothic. T

Thesis: Characters like gods, heroes, and monsters in Greek mythology are reimagined in

Southern gothic narratives as flawed individuals grappling with moral ambiguity and existential

dilemmas. These archetypal reinterpretations are then used to represent aspects of human nature

and societal tensions prevalent in the Southern context.

Subpoints?:

- Narratives: Greek mythological narratives serving as templates for Southern gothic

stories, offering frameworks to explore themes like fate, hubris, and the consequences of

human actions. These narratives provide depth and complexity to Southern gothic

storytelling, enriching it with timeless motifs and universal truths. (Metamorphosis?

Journeys?)

- Settings: The gothic/grotesque/decrepit and how it influences the story and changes the

characters

- Symbols: Symbols from Greek mythology: such as the labyrinth, the phoenix, and the

sirens, are recontextualized in Southern gothic narratives to represent themes

At its center, Greek mythology focuses, not on the supernatural, but on the human, and on the

flawed. The Greeks lived in a magical world; gods, nymphs and spirits lived amongst mortals,

and were responsible for the “odd” natural phenomena that could not be explained. At the same

time, however, this was a world that “made sense”: Greek rationalism in this period was the basis

of much Greek philosophical thought and also subsequently leaked into Greek religious thought.

In this philosophy, it was believed that the universe operated on a set of inherent, logical systems

and that humans could understand those systems through our own rational thinking and intellect.
This is seen in the organising system and hierarchy of the gods; in his journal article Ancient

Greek Religion, Hugh Lloyd-Jones notes that “the gods are distinguished from one another by

their attributes and functions, but they came to form a coherent system in which each deity has

his or her special place and relation to the others.” With this rationalism also came important

distinctions between the gods by their attributes and functions. As a result, the gods and

goddesses acted within their own parameters and according to their characters, as noted again by

Lloyd-Jones: “[The] gods [of Greek mythos] were by no means all good; their distinguishing

quality was not goodness, but power. Legend depicted them as being actuated by human

passions, so that their critics have found them easy to ridicule. The Christian Fathers treated

them with contempt, but indeed the same thing had been done by Greek philosophers long before

their time.” This defines the core of Greek religion; an emphasis on human-ness above

everything else.

- Tangent: the Greeks defined the rational as human, because everything was defined and

dictated by humanness (even their religion)–as everything acted on logical, rational

systems, the gods were rational while also having human flaws; Greeks believed flaw

was inevitable? What does this mean? What does it mean for the Southern Gothic?

- Connect to the Southern Gothic: characteristics: a focus on the human, the flawed,

the supernatural is also almost always influenced (or is) by the flawed human → used

as a wider critique of society and culture (how does this give meaning to the Southern

Gothic); rationalism? Find connection to rationalism in Southern Gothic

- Make a greater point to assert that the similarities don’t exist in a vacuum;

ASSERT that Greek mythology has influenced a great sphere of literature, has

had a lasting, enduring effect–if not created it, then at least popularized it?
Similarly, in the Southern Gothic, the continuing emphasis remains on the human, and, more

distinctly, the flaws and distortion of the human. The Southern Gothic is fueled by the need to

explain and/or understand foundational trauma, the violation or loss of that which is essential to

identity and survival but often irretrievable. Southern Gothic literature is characterized by

obsessive preoccupations—with blood, family, and inheritance; racial, gender, and/or class

identities; the Christian religion (typically, in its most “fundamentalist” forms); and home—and

a compulsion to talk (or write) about these preoccupations.

Define: Southern Gothic is a mode of expression in literature, art, film/television, and other

mediums that employs the grotesque, the forgotten, the failed, and the macabre (sometimes

through supernatural devices) to unearth and displace the values of the American South (Savoy,

1998; Yaeger, 2005). Southern Gothic appropriates stylistic devices of the much older European

Gothic tradition, a tradition that includes “a pushing toward extremes and excess... of cruelty,

rapacity and fear, passion and sexual degradation” that offers through closure in its endings of a

reinforcement of “culturally prescribed doctrines of morality and propriety” (Lloyd-Smith, 2004,

p. 5). Whether lurking in bleak castles, moonlit graveyards, or atop a craggy cliff overlooking a

crashing sea, Gothic characters “are generally up to no good, disbelieving in the significance of

virginity and proclaiming their own superiority and inherent freedom as rational beings above

the shibboleths of convention and religious faith” (p. 5). We imagine yoked nobility or

disavowed aristocracy in the fading, ragged images of Heathcliff, Count Dracula, Miss

Havisham, or Mrs. Danvers. In Southern Gothic texts, an American twist is added: The morality

and propriety that win out as traditional hallmarks of the Gothic never fully materialize. Or if
they do, it comes with an ironic price, an unfortunate turn of fate that befalls “the good country

people,” to invoke the title of one of Flannery O'Connors Southern Gothic stories. In the

Southern Gothic the world is in a ruinous state of violent decay, much like the world Southerners

faced at the end of the

U.S. Civil War and, again, during the Great Depression. Innocence, redemption, and salvation–

these are hallmarks of progressing toward a reparative world we can inhabit with grace and

goodwill. But what if this world is not for us? How do the characters inhabiting Southern Gothic

texts - queer kids, bullied outsiders, battered wives, figures ostracized and oppressed by the

normalizing forces of a local history and culture - survive in a world devoid of salvation?

Until recently, Greek myths have been regarded with great admiration as the example, par

excellence, of what myths should be. It is true, however, that critics have not always agreed as to

the special qualities in which Greek myths excelled. In the first half of the twentieth century the

rationalism of Greek myths was particularly emphasized. Martin Nilsson expressed this view of

Greek Religion (1925). Speaking of the Greeks he says: ‘Their marvelous qualities of mind, their

rationalism, and clarity of thinking could brook no ambiguity or confusion. Hence was born

among them that independent searching after truth which is Science, the greatest offspring of the

spirit of Greece. We have seen that the same quality in a lower form, for which I should perhaps

use the term rationalism, gave to the Greek myths character, in contradistinction to the primitive

tale and folk-tale out of which they sprang. An outgrowth of the same kind is the humanizing of

the myths, the anthropomorphism characteristic of Greek mythology. It is due not only to the

plastic imagination of the Greeks, with its power of intuition, but also to their antipathy to the
primitive and fantastic ideas and characteristics of the folk-tale, which led them to clear away all

that too sharply contradicted the experiences of human life. The Greek myth has thus become

something other than the ordinary folk-tale, and rightly bears a separate name.

This attitude towards Greek myth is shared by H. J. Rose: “The Greeks at their best were sane,

high-spirited, clear-headed, beauty-loving optimists and not in the least other-worldly. Hence

their legends are almost without exception free from the cloudiness, the wild grotesques, and the

horrible features which beset the popular traditions of less gifted and happy peoples. Even their

monsters are not very ugly or uncouth, nor their ghosts and demons paralysingly dreadful. Their

heroes... meet with extraordinary adventures but there is a certain tone of reasonableness running

through their most improbable exploits. As for the gods and other supernatural characters, they

are glorified men and women, who remain extremely human, and on the whole neither irrational

nor grossly unfair in their dealings. Such tales as contain and repulsive elements tend to drop into

the background or to be modified.’ Thus both these writers stress the human-ness, the

reasonableness and the realism of Greek myths which lead to the elimination of fantastic,

mystical and repulsive elements.

Lloyd-Jones, Hugh. “Ancient Greek Religion.” Proceedings of the American Philosophical

Society, vol. 145, no. 4, 2001, pp. 456–64. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1558184.

Accessed 2 Apr. 2024.

Conradie, P. J. “THE LITERARY NATURE OF GREEK MYTHS: A Critical Discussion of G.

S. Kirk’s Views.” Acta Classica, vol. 20, 1977, pp. 49–58. JSTOR,

http://www.jstor.org/stable/24591524. Accessed 2 Apr. 2024.

BAILEY, PEGGY DUNN. “Female Gothic Fiction, Grotesque Realities, and ‘Bastard Out of

Carolina’: Dorothy Allison Revises the Southern Gothic.” The Mississippi Quarterly, vol. 63, no.

2, 2010, pp. 269–90. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/26477320. Accessed 17 Apr. 2024.

Helmsing, Mark. “Grotesque Stories, Desolate Voices: Encountering Histories and Geographies

of Violence in Southern Gothic’s Haunted Mansions.” Counterpoints, vol. 434, 2014, pp. 316–

23. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/45177517. Accessed 22 Apr. 2024.

Spiegel, Alan. “A Theory of the Grotesque in Southern Fiction.” The Georgia Review, vol. 26,

no. 4, 1972, pp. 426–37. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41396901. Accessed 23 Apr. 2024.

- Summary:

- The essay discusses the concept of the "grotesque" in contemporary Southern

fiction. The author argues that the grotesque refers to a particular type of character

that recurs frequently - a physically or mentally deformed figure who represents

an outcast or scapegoat.

- The reasons for the prevalence of the grotesque are tied to 20th century changes in

epistemology (man's conception of himself and the universe as lacking divine

order) as well as specific social and economic shifts in the American South.
 - The grotesque is distinguished from the Gothic novel tradition, which takes place

in a dream-like, nightmarish setting outside of society. In contrast, the grotesque

exists within the daylight reality of society itself as a thorn in its side.

- While the Gothic novel has its modern counterpart in contemporary Northern

fiction with its hyperbolic, symbolic modes, Southern fiction maintains a more

sensuous, psychologically realistic depiction of the grotesque figure integrated

into the tangible social world.

- In essence, the grotesque serves as a key distinguishing element separating the

literary visions and techniques of Southern fiction from its Northern counterparts

in the 20th century American novel tradition.

Presley, Delma Eugene. “The Moral Function of Distortion in Southern Grotesque.” South

Atlantic Bulletin, vol. 37, no. 2, 1972, pp. 37–46. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/3197720.

Accessed 23 Apr. 2024.

- Summary:

- The article discusses the role and function of distortion in Southern Grotesque

literature. The author argues against critics who attribute the grotesque style

simply to cultural dislocation in the South or philosophical influences like

existentialism. Instead, drawing heavily on Flannery O'Connor's perspective, the

article contends that distortion in Southern Grotesque fiction serves a moral and

theological purpose.

- The distorted, “freakish” characters are used to depict what human beings are like

without God or a sense of the divine. The brokenness and incompleteness

 portrayed through distortion is meant to remind us of the ideal, “whole” human

condition originally intended. Writers like O'Connor, McCullers, and Williams

use distortion not just for shock value, but to make a point about human

possibilities - both the depraved and the transcendent.

- The article analyzes works by McCullers and Williams to show how, despite

surface grotesqueries, their writings ultimately point toward the necessity of

human love and grasping a proper theological understanding of ourselves and

God. The grotesque mode continually reminds us of what human nature once was

and what it could become again through love and reunion with the divine.

no cap(stone artifact)