Southern Ontario Gothic is a
subgenre
Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...
of the
Gothic novel genre and a feature of
Canadian literature
Canadian literature is the literature of a multicultural country, written in languages including Canadian English, Canadian French, Indigenous languages, and many others such as Canadian Gaelic. Influences on Canadian writers are broad both g ...
that comes from
Southern Ontario
Southern Ontario is a primary region of the province of Ontario, Canada, the other primary region being Northern Ontario. It is the most densely populated and southernmost region in Canada. The exact northern boundary of Southern Ontario is disp ...
. This region includes
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...
, Southern Ontario's major industrial cities (
Windsor
Windsor may refer to:
Places Australia
* Windsor, New South Wales
** Municipality of Windsor, a former local government area
* Windsor, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland
**Shire of Windsor, a former local government authority around Wi ...
,
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
,
Hamilton,
Kitchener,
St. Thomas,
Oshawa,
St. Catharines), and the surrounding countryside. While the genre may also feature other areas of Ontario, Canada, and the world as narrative locales, this region provides the core settings.
Overview
The term was first used in
Graeme Gibson's ''Eleven Canadian Novelists'' (1972) to recognize an existing tendency to apply aspects of the Gothic novel to writing based in and around Southern Ontario.
[''The Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature''. 1997. Don Mills: Oxford University Press Canada, p.1085.] In an interview with
Characteristics
Like the Southern Gothic of American writers such asNotable works
Notable works of the genre include Davies' '' Deptford Trilogy'', Findley's '' Headhunter'', Atwood's ''Criticism
Writer David Ingham describes Southern Ontario Gothic as having "little or nothing to distinguish it from everyday, garden-variety type realism."Ingham, David"Bashing the Fascists: The Moral Dimensions of Findley's Fiction"
''Studies in Canadian Literature.'' Retrieved on December 3, 2007.
See also
* United Empire LoyalistsReferences
{{Fantasy fiction Canadian literary movements Horror genres Gothic fiction * Postcolonial literature