The Gothic Short Story Across Cultures: Concluding Remarks

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This is my final post about the gothic short story across cultures. My first post can be found here, my second here, and my third here. The gothic short story can be found in many different cultures from Latin American, Chicano, and American. These stories not only give us a sense of the gothic genre but they also give us a taste of each author’s own culture. Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s stories were influenced by the tales that he was told as a young boy as well as the landscape and environment that he grew up in. Rudolfo Anaya’s writing is very reflective of his childhood on the llano. Edgar Allan Poe was influenced by the Romantic Movement and the many gothic writers that were active during his lifetime.

Each author’s style of writing is unique because of the culture that they grew up in. There are some similarities between the authors, however. For example Marquez and Anaya were both influenced by folktales that they were told as young boys growing up. They were also both influenced by the landscapes that they grew up in. All three authors grew up in relative poverty, which affected their writing.

Overall, each author has a very distinct voice. Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s stories are very fantastical, which is why they are typically labeled as magical realism. He allows the reader to escape into a different world that is completely unrealistic yet believable. Rudolfo Anaya’s stories give us a sense of Chicano struggle and pride. His stories show us the struggles that Chicano’s face and the pride with which they get through these struggles. Edgar Allan Poe’s stories are classically gothic. They are both terrifying and grotesque. His stories are both entertaining and thought provoking in that they make us rethink the human condition by revealing the many vices of mankind.

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