McCullers's style is often described as Southern Gothic, as the majority of her works take place in the Southern United States and feature eccentric characters suffering from loneliness interspersed by moments of deep empathy. In a discussion with the Irish critic and writer Terence de Vere White, McCullers said, "Writing, for me, is a search for God". Other critics have variously detected tragicomic or political elements in her writing.
The most recent scholarly collection of commentaries on her work is Carson McCullers in the Twenty-First Century (2016), edited by Graham-Bertolini and Kayser.[26]
