The main aim of this master thesis is to analyse the short stories of Flannery O‘Connor and Carson McCullers with the attention being paid to the gothic elements of violence, loneliness and freakishness. Since the authors were the most prominent writers of the American Southern literature, the general characterization of the American South and its socio-historical context are provided. The theoretical part deals with the Southern literature and its phenomenon of the twentieth century, the Southern Renaissance. The terms Southern Gothic and grotesque are also clarified. The analytical part discusses the short stories ―The Ballad of the Sad Café‖ and ―A Good Man Is Hard To Find.‖
