Content area

Abstract

In the gothic genre, there is often a theme of immobility that casts a stagnant malaise over the conventionally domestic settings of gothic texts. Isabel Cañas’s novel Vampires of El Norte develops and extends the Gothic genre from a Latinx perspective, engaging themes of American colonialism, the Mexican-American War, and female mobility in 19th-century Mexico. Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s novel Mexican Gothic disrupts conventional generic themes to create a radical space of revisionism as she explores eugenics, Mexico’s Anglo imperialist history, and female mobility in 1950’s Mexico. My essay explores how both authors subvert traditional gendered gothic tropes to extend and contemporize the gothic genre. I use postcolonial feminist theory to demonstrate how Noemí, the main character in Mexican Gothic, resists colonialist control of her body through her mobility outside of the domestic sphere, as she enters the public sphere and engages with locals. I also look at how Nena, in Vampires of El Norte, asserts agency over her body when she leaves home to join the war effort, and thus evades or temporarily thwarts her parents’ plans to immobilize her body by locating her within the domestic space as a housewife.

Details

1010268
Title
Reimagining the Gothic From a Feminist, Latinx Perspective: Female Mobility and Subaltern Rejection in Silvia Moreno-Garcia's Mexican Gothic and Isabel Cañas’s Vampires of El Norte
Number of pages
88
Publication year
2025
Degree date
2025
School code
6050
Source
MAI 86/12(E), Masters Abstracts International
ISBN
9798286433063
Committee member
Crisco, Virginia; Gordon, Sean
University/institution
California State University, Fresno
Department
English
University location
United States -- California
Degree
M.A.
Source type
Dissertation or Thesis
Language
English
Document type
Dissertation/Thesis
Dissertation/thesis number
32114770
ProQuest document ID
3224178855
Document URL
https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/reimagining-gothic-feminist-latinx-perspective/docview/3224178855/se-2?accountid=208611
Copyright
Database copyright ProQuest LLC; ProQuest does not claim copyright in the individual underlying works.
Database
ProQuest One Academic