Dying protagonists in two gay southern novels: Randall Kenan's a visitation of spirits and Jim Grimsley's dream boy

Abstract

The present article explores two southern novels, Randall Kenan's A Visitation of Spirits (1989) and Jim Grimsley's Dream Boy (1995). These two novels are at first sight a deviation from the contemporary tradition of coming-out (i.e., gay coming-of-age) novels, as their teenage protagonists do not successfully develop a proud gay identity but die a violent death, by suicide and murder, respectively. However, a closer exploration of the texts themselves as well as the literary context will also reveal that even though both novels do constitute a departure from the previous tradition of gay coming-of-age novels by their extensive use of Gothic elements, they still contain a plausible story portraying the interplay of the social and psychological facets of growing up.