Latin American Gothic is a subgenre of Gothic fiction that draws on Gothic themes and aesthetics and adapts them to the political and geographical specificities of Latin America. While its origins can be traced back to 20th century Latin American literature and cinema, it was in the first decades of the 21st century that it gained particular relevance as a literary current.
If Gothic fiction, in general, is characterized by an appeal to negative emotional responses triggered by confrontation with alterity, the narrative transculturation exercised in its Latin American variety doubles the stakes by rendering both foreign and local elements alien. [1] Themes such as the threat of the supernatural, the intrusion of the past into the present, the blurred line between science and religion, or the repression of sexuality serve to unveil the spectres that haunt Latin America's historical past and current political situation in order to explore the sources of fear and unease in its different countries and regions. In this way, the resources of Gothic fiction make it possible to address issues such as the genocide of Indigenous peoples, class struggle, enforced disappearances, and patriarchal violence.
Despite being sometimes portrayed as a ruptural phenomenon, the emergence of Gothic themes and topics in 21st century Latin American literature can also be regarded as a variation on a regional literary tradition woven into magic realism and the fantastic. [2] Literary scholar Soledad Quereilhac argues that the circulation of European Gothic works in nineteenth-century Argentina, along with the proliferation of pseudoscientific and occult themes in the popular press, led to a local renewal of the genre, as witnessed by the work of authors such as Leopoldo Lugones, Eduardo Wilde, Eduardo Holmberg and, most notably, Horacio Quiroga. [2] The novel La amortajada (1938), by Chilean writer María Luisa Bombal, has been often singled out as one of the most direct antecedents of contemporary Latin American Gothic fiction. [3] [4] Bombal's novel, narrated first-person by a dead woman in her coffin and touching on themes such as abortion and issues of power and submission, was a major influence on Juan Rulfo's Pedro Páramo (1955), which, in addition to being a precursor of magic realism, can also be credited with having helped to pave the way for the regional development of the Gothic. [5] In the second half of the 20th century, some remarkable forerunners of this literary subgenre include the macabre and darkly erotic short stories by Uruguayan writer Armonía Somers (pub. 1950–1994) and the haunted house themed novellaLa mansión de Araucaima (1973), which Colombian author Álvaro Mutis wrote following a debate with Spanish-Mexican filmmaker Luis Buñuel over the possibility of transposing the themes of English Gothic fiction to a tropical setting. [1]
The Latin American literary Gothic stands out for its predominantly female protagonism. The most widely known author working in this vein is arguably Mariana Enríquez, an Argentine writer whose works feature disturbed women, sinister children, and eerie physical environments and deal with themes such as the legacy of military dictatorships, the emotional consequences of exile, femicide, and police violence. She achieved international recognition after the publication of her second book of short stories, Things We Lost in the Fire (2016), which became a bestseller and was translated into more than a dozen languages. She later won the Herralde Novel Prize for Our Share of Night (2019) and was shortlisted for the 2021 International Booker Prize for Megan McDowell's English translation of her first book of short stories, The Dangers of Smoking in Bed (2009). [6] [7]
Ecuadorian writer Mónica Ojeda rose to prominence thanks to the critical acclaim she received for her third novel Jawbone (2018), which follows the story of a horror-obsessed teenage girl who is kidnapped by her literature teacher and was shortlisted, in translation by Sarah Booker, for the 2022 National Book Award. Ojeda's 2020 short story collection Las voladoras —which includes Caninos , previously published in 2017—explores themes such as gender violence, abortion, incest, child abuse, sexuality, and religion through the lens of what she defines as "Andean Gothic". It earned Ojeda further critical acclaim and was shortlisted for the Ribera del Duero literary award. [8] [9]
Giovanna Rivero is one of the most successful contemporary writers in her native Bolivia. Her work has begun to gain international recognition since the publication of her book of short stories Fresh Dirt from the Grave (2021), which moves between horror and science fiction and expands the boundaries of the Gothic to engage with pre-Columbian ritual and folk tales. [10]
Michelle Roche Rodríguez's novel Malasangre, about a young girl from a Catholic and conservative family who becomes a blood-sucking monster in 1920s Caracas, was shortlisted for the 2021 Celsius literary award, which recognises the best works of science fiction, fantasy, and horror written in Spanish. [11] Roche Rodríguez has been compared to her countryman Juan Carlos Chirinos, who also makes use of Gothic aesthetics to portray the social reality of Venezuela. [12]
Other authors sometimes classed within the Latin American Gothic movement are María Fernanda Ampuero, Fernanda Melchor, and Samanta Schweblin.
In the 1980s, Colombian filmmakers Carlos Mayolo and Luis Ospina, members of the so-called "Cali group" or "Caliwood", coined the expression "Tropical Gothic" to refer to the aesthetics of their films, which feature monstrous narratives set against a backdrop of sunlight, warm climates, and an abundance of natural resources. [13] According to scholars Justin D. Edwards and Sandra Guardini Vasconcelos, the Tropics are fertile ground for the Gothic due to its history of violence and transculturation that involves both the myths that were brought to the region by the European settlers and haunt it under the guise of its colonial past, and an older belief system that is constantly in the process of being unearthed, acknowledged, and remembered in awe and wonder. [13] Mayolo directed the films Bloody Flesh (1983), a tale of incest and cannibalistic undead creatures set during the military dictatorship of Gustavo Rojas Pinilla, and La mansión de Araucaima (1986), based on the novella by Álvaro Mutis about a mysterious house that keeps a group of people trapped by their own fears and repressed desires. Luis Ospina was the director of Pura Sangre (1982), which is one of the first Colombian vampire films and which, like Bloody Flesh, uses vampirism as an allegory of the bleeding of the working classes of the Cauca Valley by the local businessmen.
Among more recent films, La Llorona (2019), by Guatemalan filmmaker Jayro Bustamante, places the Mesoamerican ghost legend of La Llorona in the context of the 1981-1983 Mayan genocide. The film was nominated for the Golden Globe, Goya, and Ariel awards and won the Director's Award at the Giornate degli Autori of the Venice Film Festival.
Also critically acclaimed was Pablo Larraín's black comedy El Conde (2023), in which Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet is portrayed as a two hundred and fifty year old vampire. It received an Academy Award nomination for Best Cinematography and was nominated to the Golden Lion and winner for Best Screenplay at the Venice Film Festival.
On television, the miniseries Santa Evita (2022), inspired by the novel of the same name by Tomás Eloy Martínez (1995), offers a fictionalised account of the fate of the embalmed corpse of Eva Perón framed in a phantasmagorical atmosphere and bordering on the supernatural.
The style of Argentine visual artist Santiago Caruso, who illustrated the covers of many works of Gothic, horror, and fantasy fiction, ranging from Alejandra Pizarnik's The Bloody Countess to the Comte de Lautréamont's Les Chants de Maldoror , has often been described as Gothic. [14]
María Fernanda Ampuero: Cockfight (tr. Frances Riddle for Feminist Press, 2020), Human Sacrifices (tr. Frances Riddle for Feminist Press, 2023).
Mariana Enríquez: Our Share of Night (tr. Megan McDowell for Granta Books, 2023), The Dangers of Smoking in Bed (tr. Megan McDowell for Granta Books, 2021), Things We Lost in the Fire (tr. Megan McDowell for Portobello Books, 2018).
Fernanda Melchor: Hurricane Season (tr. Sophie Hughes for Fitzcarraldo Editions, 2020), This is Not Miami (tr. Sophie Hughes for Fitzcarraldo Editions, 2023).
Mónica Ojeda: Jawbone (tr. Sarah Booker for Coffee House Press, 2022), Nefando (tr. Sarah Booker for Coffee House Press, 2023).
Giovanna Rivero: Fresh Dirt from the Grave (tr. Isabel Adey for Charco Press, 2023).
Samanta Schweblin: Fever Dream (tr. Megan McDowell for Riverhead Books, 2017), Little Eyes (tr. Megan McDowell for Riverhead Books, 2020), Mouthful of Birds (tr. Megan McDowell for Riverhead Books, 2019), Seven Empty Houses (tr. Megan McDowell for Riverhead Books, 2023).
Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda y Arteaga was a 19th-century Cuban-born Spanish writer. Born in Puerto Príncipe, now Camagüey, she lived in Cuba until she was 22. Her family moved to Spain in 1836, where she started writing as La Peregrina and lived there until 1859, when she moved back to Cuba with her second husband until his death in 1863, after which she moved back to Spain. She died in Madrid in 1873 from diabetes at the age of 58.
José Agustín Ramírez Gómez was a Mexican novelist, short story writer, essayist and screenwriter. Publishing under the pen name José Agustín, he was considered one of the most influential and prolific Mexican writers of the second half of the 20th century.
Argentine literature, i.e. the set of literary works produced by writers who originated from Argentina, is one of the most prolific, relevant and influential in the whole Spanish speaking world, with renowned writers such as Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortázar, Leopoldo Lugones and Ernesto Sábato.
José Manuel Donoso Yáñez, known as José Donoso, was a Chilean writer, journalist and professor. He lived most of his life in Chile, although he spent many years in self-imposed exile in Mexico, the United States and Spain. Although he had left his country in the sixties for personal reasons, after 1973 he said his exile was also a form of protest against the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. He returned to Chile in 1981 and lived there until his death.
César Aira is an Argentinian writer and translator, and an exponent of contemporary Argentinian literature. Aira has published over a hundred short books of stories, novels and essays. In fact, at least since 1993, a hallmark of his work is a truly frenetic level of writing and publication—two to five novella-length books each year. He has lectured at the University of Buenos Aires, on Copi and Arthur Rimbaud, and at the University of Rosario on Constructivism and Stéphane Mallarmé, and has translated and edited books from France, England, Italy, Brazil, Spain, Mexico, and Venezuela.
Daína Chaviano is a Cuban-American writer of French and Asturian descent. She has lived in the United States since 1991.
The Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Prize is a literary prize awarded to a book written in Spanish by a female author. It is organized by the Guadalajara International Book Fair, based in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. Current winners of the prize receive USD$10,000.
Samanta Schweblin is an Argentine author currently based in Berlin, Germany. She has published three collections of short stories, a novella and a novel, besides stories that have appeared in anthologies and magazines such as The New Yorker, The Paris review, Granta, The Drawbridge, Harper’s Magazine and McSweeney’s. She has won numerous awards around the world and her books have been translated into more than forty languages and adapted for film.
Costa Rican literature has roots in colonization and is marked by European influences. Because Costa Rica is a young country, its literary tradition is also young. The history of Costa Rican literature dates to the end of the 19th century.
Mariana Enríquez is an Argentine journalist, novelist, and short story writer. She is a part of the group of writers known as "new Argentine narrative". Her short stories fall within the horror and gothic genres and have been published in international magazines such as Granta, Electric Literature, Asymptote, McSweeney's, Virginia Quarterly Review, and The New Yorker.
Elia Barceló or Elia Eisterer-Barceló is a Spanish academic and author who lives in Austria.
María Flora Yáñez Bianchi was a Chilean writer who worked in the novel and short story genres, for which she received the University of Concepción's Atenea Award in 1947 and the Santiago Municipal Literature Award in 1952.
Fernanda Melchor is a Mexican writer best known for her novel Hurricane Season for which she won the 2019 Anna Seghers Prize and a place on the shortlist for the 2020 International Booker Prize.
Mónica Ojeda Franco is an Ecuadorian writer. She obtained her bachelor's degree from the Universidad Católica de Santiago de Guayaquil, followed by a master's degree from the Universidad Pompeu Fabra de Barcelona. She is currently working on her doctorate in Madrid. Ojeda has published in several genres, including poetry, novels, and short stories. In 2017, she was named as one of the Bogotá39, a selection of the best young writers in Latin America. The other 38 included Samanta Schweblin, the Brazilian Mariana Torres and the Mexican Gabriela Jauregui, Liliana Colanzi from Bolivia and Argentinians María José Caro and Lola Copacabana.
Hurricane Season is the second novel by Mexican writer Fernanda Melchor, published in April 2017 by Literatura Random House. It is a nonlinear narrative and a third-person narrative. It focuses on the events surrounding the murder of the Witch of La Matosa, an impoverished fictional town in Mexico through which Melchor explores violence and machismo in Mexican society.
Gilda Holst Molestina was an Ecuadorian writer and academic. Her narrative made use of humor and irony, in addition to the treatment of themes related to gender inequality.
Daniela Tarazona is a Mexican writer and journalist. She is the winner of the 2022 Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Prize.
Las voladoras is a book of short stories by Ecuadorian writer Mónica Ojeda, published for the first time in 2020 by publishing house Páginas de Espuma. The book is composed of eight stories that take place in Andean settings which are marked by mysticism, violence, ancestral rites, and horror, in a style that the author herself defined as Andean gothic. Some of the themes she addresses include: feminicides, domestic violence, grief, child abuse, forbidden love, and abortion, among others.
Ecuadorian literature has been characterized for essentially being costumbrista and, in general, closely linked to events that are exclusively national in nature, with narratives that provide a glimpse into the life of the common citizen.The origins of Ecuadorian literature go back to the ancestral narratives that were passed down from generation to generation. These first stories dealt with fantastical, mythological, and legendary themes.
Caninos is a short story by Ecuadorian writer Mónica Ojeda, first published in 2017 by Editorial Turbina. It was later included as part of her book of short stories Las voladoras (2020). The plot follows a family with a dark secret: the father undergoes a transformation that begins with him losing his teeth and then gradually acquiring canine features. The characters in the story do not have given names; rather, they are identified as Hija, Papi, Mami, and Ñaña.