Sing, Unburied, Sing: Genre 1 key example

In Sing, Unburied, Sing Ward blends the real and the supernatural without separating them. Ghosts like Richie and Given enter the story naturally and stay present without needing explanation or causing disruption. Jojo, Leonie, Mam, and Kayla accept these hauntings as part of life. They exist beside the living and affect their everyday decisions. This structure allows Ward to keep grief and history physically present in the plot, as Richie and Given literally haunt Jojo and Leonie.

At the same time, the novel draws heavily from the Southern Gothic tradition. The Southern Gothic is a literary genre set in the American South that focuses on decay and violence to explore social issues like racism, poverty, and morality. It often includes supernatural elements or grotesque imagery, which help to underpin a feeling of creeping psychological unease. Characters in Southern Gothic novels are usually haunted by the ghosts of their past; in Sing, Unburied, Sing these hauntings are very literal. Ward uses this backdrop to show how intensely America’s racially violent past continues to shape the present. Southern Gothic novels also often include grotesque, unflinching, and vivid details, and Ward certainly makes use of this trope. The novel features several scenes of drug use and bodily suffering. Indeed, all of Ward’s characters are rarely physically comfortable. The realism with which Ward describes their spilt blood and erupting vomit grounds the reader in the harshness of daily life in the American South of both past and present.