1. Printable Version
2. Download PDF
3. Cite this Page
4. Tweet This

McCullers, (Lula) Carson 1917–1967

Mrs. McCullers was a Southern American novelist, short story writer, and playwright. Death, sacrifice, withdrawal, and the failure of love were the principal themes of her gothic fiction. Her work is considered among the most important of her generation. (See also Contemporary Authors, Vols. 5-8, rev. ed; obituary, Vols. 25-28.)

Mrs. McCullers is "romantic" …, but she does not strain for beauty. She is natural in detail and diction ("gang," "hard," "sweat"), yet at the same time she conveys the transcendental, the philosophical (music of the wide sky). She concentrates on—and makes us feel—pain.

Irving Malin, in his New American Gothic (© 1962 by Southern Illinois University Press; reprinted by permission of Southern Illinois University Press), Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1962, p. 157.

In the fiction of Carson McCullers...

Join eNotes

The above is a free excerpt. Get total access to this content with the:

eNotes Pass

1. McCullers, (Lula) Carson 1917–1967
2. Copyright

1. Carson McCullers