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Southern Ontario Gothic

Speculative and Fantastic Fiction

Southern Ontario Gothic is a subgenre of the Gothic novel and a feature of Canadian literature originating from Southern Ontario, a region that includes Toronto and the area's major industrial cities such as Windsor, London, Hamilton, Kitchener, St. Thomas, Oshawa, and St. Catharines along with the surrounding countryside. Writers associated with the genre, including Alice Munro, Margaret Atwood, and Robertson Davies, use its conventions to examine the region's own history and social character.

Facts
Place of Origin
Southern Ontario, Canada 1
Notable Example
Margaret Atwood's Alias Grace 1
Defining Trait
Combines realist small-town depiction with Gothic elements 1
In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Southern Ontario Gothic - Wikipedia
  • Southern Ontario Gothic Genre section, sentence 1
    within the context of Southern Ontario
  • Southern Ontario Gothic Genre section, sentence 2
    combines realist depictions of small-town Canadian life with common Gothic story elements like confinement, madness, secrets, the grotesque, and fear of the unknown
  • Alice Munro and Margaret Atwood section
    Margaret Atwood has experimented with the Gothic form in novels like Alias Grace and The Blind Assassin.
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