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Tropical Gothic examines Gothic within a specific geographical area of 'the South' of the Americas. In so doing, we structure the book around geographical coordinates (from North to South) and move between various national traditions of the gothic (Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, etc) alongside regional manifestations of the Gothic (the US south and the Caribbean) as well as transnational movements of the Gothic within the Americas. The reflections on national traditions of the Gothic in this volume add to the critical body of literature on specific languages or particular nations, such as Scottish Gothic, American Gothic, Canadian Gothic, German Gothic, Kiwi Gothic, etc. This is significant because, while the Southern Gothic in the US has been thoroughly explored, there is a gap in the critical literature about the Gothic in the larger context of region of 'the South' in the Americas. This volume does not pretend to be a comprehensive examination of tropical Gothic in the Americas; rather, it pinpoints a variety of locations where this form of the Gothic emerges. In so doing, the transnational interventions of the Gothic in this book read the flows of Gothic forms across borders and geographical regions to tease out the complexities of Gothic cultural production within cultural and linguistic translations. Tropical Gothic includes, but is by no means limited to, a reflection on a region where European colonial powers fought intensively against indigenous populations and against each other for control of land and resources. In other cases, the vast populations of African slaves were transported, endowing these regions with a cultural inheritance that all the nations involved are still trying to comprehend. The volume reflects on how these histories influence the Gothic in this region.
List of contents
Introduction Justin D. Edwards and Sandra G. T. Vasconcelos. Section I: Tropical Undead 1. Mapping Tropical Gothic in the Americas Justin D Edwards 2. The Zombie Tropocalypse: Entropic (Digital) Disaster in the Hot Zone Rune Graulund 3. 'The Head-Quarters of Death': Nineteenth-Century New Orleans as Gothic Nexus Owen Robinson 4. A 'litany seeking a text': The Specter of Conjure in the Sub-tropical Southern Gothic Elizabeth Rodriguez Fielder 5. 'They are not Men, Monsieur... They are zombies...': The Construction of Haitian Identity and the Work of the Left Hand Kelly Gardner 6. Consuming the Tropics: The Tropical Zombie Re-eviscerated in Dead Island Johan Höglund Section II: Tropical Chills 7. Environmental Apocalypse and Uncanny Technology: Gothic Visions of the Future in Three Mexican Literary Dystopias Inés Ordiz Alonso-Collada 8. Gothic Re-Constructions: Mayan Ruins and Tourist Horror in The Ruins Enrique Ajuria Ibarra 9. Maps, History and Cooking: Laura Esquivel's Mexico David Punter 10. 'I want to escape these walls, but I can't exist outside them': Spaces and Characters in Carlos Fuentes's Gothic Fiction Antonio Alcalá 11. Casas Tomadas: Haunting and Homes in Latin American Stories Ilse Büssing Section III: Social and Political Landscapes of the Tropical Gothic 12. Sepulchral Beauty in Brazilian Romanticism Cilaine Alves Cunha 13. Tropical Gothic: José de Alencar and the Foundation of the Brazilian Novel Sandra Guardini Vasconcelos 14. Difference and Subversion: Gothic Migrations in Nineteenth-Century Latin American Novels Rita Terezinha Schmidt 15. The Strange Case of Brazilian Gothic Cinema Daniel Serravalle de Sá. Contributors. Index.
About the author
Justin D. Edwards is Professor of English at the University of Surrey, UK.
Sandra Guardini T. Vasconcelos is Professor of English Literature and Comparative Literature at the University of São Paulo, Brazil.
Summary
This book examines the Gothic in literature, film, and culture in the tropical and sub-tropical ‘South’ of the Americas, moving between various national traditions of the gothic (Mexico, Costa Rica, Brazil, Argentina) alongside regional manifestations (the US south and the Caribbean) and transnational movements of the Gothic within the Americas.
