True Detective as a Southern Gothic: A Study of Its Music-Lyrics

Nic Pizzolatto’s True Detective offers profound
mythological and philosophical ramblings for audiences with literary
sensibilities. An American Sothern Gothic with its Bayon landscape
of the Gulf Coast of Louisiana, where two detectives Rustin Cohle
and Martin Hart begin investigating the isolated murder of Dora
Lange, only to discover an entrenched network of perversion and
corruption, offers an existential outlook. The proposed research paper
shall attempt to investigate the pervasive themes of gothic and
existentialism in the music of the first season of the series.

• Divya Sharma

• Existentialism
• Gothic
• Music
• Mythology
• Philosophy.

[1] Jaspers, Karl. The Idea of the University. University of Michigan: P.
Owen, 1965. 2nd ed. Google Book Search. Web. 3 Feb. 2015.
[2] Kierkegaard, Soren. The Soul of Kierkegaard: Selections from his
Journals. Ed. Alexander Dru. New York: Dover , 2012. Print.
[3] https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/sartre/works/exist/sartre.htm
l
[4] Suebsaeng, Asawin. “How he Chooses Music For ‘True Detective.”’
Mother Jones. Jan. 24, 2014. Web. Jan. 7, 2015.
http://www.motherjones.com/mixedmedia/2014/01/t-bone-burnett-truedetective-
hbo-music-songs
[5] Michel, Lincoln. “Lush Rot: Flannery O’ Conner, True Detective,
Southern Hip-Hop, and the Gnarled Roots of Southern Gothic.”
Guernica Magazine. March 17, 2014. Web.
http://www.gurnicamag.com/daily/lincoln-michel-lush-rot