SOURCE: Smethurst, James. “Invented by Horror: The Gothic and African American Literary Ideology in Native Son.” African American Review 35, no. 1 (spring 2001): 29-40.

In the following essay, Smethurst examines the role of the gothic in Native Son.

Richard Wright's Native Son is still usually taken as one of the foremost examples of late American naturalism, and much is made of the impact of modern sociology, particularly what became known as the Chicago School of Sociology, on the conception and shape of the novel.¹ Yet numerous scholars, at least in passing, have remarked on the influence of the gothic tradition on Wright's novel, arguing to one degree or another whether his usage of the gothic undermines or supports the sociological “realism” of the work.² However, the crucial importance of gothic literature and what might be thought of as the gothic sensibility to the representation of political consciousness and political development...