George Washington Cable and Grace King

Abstract

Two of the most well-known exponents of the local colour branch of New Orleans writing, George Washington Cable and Grace King’s respective work frequently portrays the relations between the city’s Creole establishment, its ‘American’ newcomers, and its black and mixed-race populations, to rather different and sometimes conflicting ends. In so doing, both writers vividly depict the idiosyncrasies of New Orleans’ site, climate, and architecture, as well as the rich folk cultures that developed between the cracks of its stratifications of race, gender, and class. This chapter looks at some examples from key works by Cable and King in comparison, examining their respective employment of certain gothic tropes in their analyses of New Orleans’ social codes and depiction of place.