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The Contemporary Style Of S-Town And Southern Gothic Literature

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Southern Gothic literature is a form of writing that became far less popular in the late 20th century. S-Town is a podcast that brought back this endangered genre, and is a real life version of it. As the story plays out in front of the listeners, people notice that the way the elements of Southern Gothic literature are used is different than the classic style people recognize. The Southern Gothic genre had become less popular in the 20th century, but this endangered genre makes a comeback with S-Town, which gives it a new life. Although S-Town seems like a classic piece of Southern Gothic literature, there are many differences the listeners catch after seeing the way it uses the genre’s elements, deterring it away from the classic style to a more contemporary style. S-Town is a piece of contemporary Southern Gothic literature because of its use of irony, macabre and grotesque, and the Southern setting.
The first piece of evidence of S-Town being in a contemporary style is its use of irony. In Southern Gothic literature, irony is defined as the story taking the characters and readers somewhere totally unexpected, the exact opposite of where the readers would expect it to end up. This has to do with the history of the South. The region was very wealthy for a lot of its history, due to the institution of slavery. Once the south lost the Civil War, the slaves were set free, and almost everything in the south fell apart. Southern Gothic writers take advantage of this and write

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