Revista Canaria de Estudios Ingleses

The Ecogothic as a Catalyst of Climate Emergency: The Impact of Monstrosity

Imelda Martín Junquera, Dr — 2024-11-01

The present issue means an opportunity to discuss the application of Ecogothic as a theoretical approach to literary and filmic texts. This public demand responds to a growing tendency to expand the studies on ecocriticism towards new fields of research. It is also clear evidence of the human preoccupation about the future of the planet Earth in a world in permanent crisis: politically, ideologically, economically and foremost environmentally.

Ding Dong, the Evil Witch is Not Dead: Monstrosity and Ecophobia in Las brujas de Westwood and Wytches

Cristina Casado Presa, Dr — 2024-11-01

Within the EcoGothic framework, this article examines how the graphic novels Las brujas de Westwood and Wytches. Volume 1 depict the witch as a monstrous and abject figure that blurs the boundary between human and nonhuman nature. In these works, the witch embodies the chaotic and uncontrollable aspects of the natural world, disrupting conventional boundaries and redefining humanity’s relationship with nature. This portrayal challenges the anthropocentric view that positions the environment as a resource to be dominated and exploited.

Land Property, Land Destruction: Ecogothic vs. Capitalism in Bram Stoker’s The Snake Pass

José Manuel Correoso Rodenas, Dr — 2024-11-01

In 1890, the future author of Dracula, Bram Stoker, published one of the most undervalued, yet innovative and interesting novels among his literary productions: The Snake’s Pass. Beyond the narration of the love story between Arthur and Norah, the novel depicts a Western Ireland scenario in which the chrematistic aims of the characters coalesce with the destruction of the landscape and, in consequence, the destruction of the environment, for a treasure is said to be hidden in the bog. Thus, the conflict coming of the extemporaneous ownership of the land (Arthur is English) leads to a questioning of how the ambition based on capitalistic-industrialist impulses (the treasure-hunt is rational and machine-ridden)
means the destruction of the environment and the perversion of the community that had traditionally been attached to that part of the country. The goal of this article is to explore how Stoker ciphered all these elements, creating an original literary product that announces some of the key conflicts in the British Isles (land property) when seen through the lens of modern criticism.

Et Verbum Caro Factum Est: Monstrosity and Transcorporeality in Mexican Gothic

Imelda Martín Junquera, Dr — 2024-11-01

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno García analyses the social situation of Mexico of the 1950s. A female gothic heroine guides the reader from a quiet town to a haunted house located in a remote village. She unveils the secrets of the Doyle’s family, hidden behind the walls of the manor and in the crypt, and investigates the relationship of the members of the house with the house, while they keep her trapped inside. Noemí, the protagonist is helped by the ghost of Ruth, a deceased member of the family, and both women together end the rule of the patriarch of the family, Howard Doyle. The final collapse of the house and the death of the members of the family means an end to the colonial period of the area leaving the local inhabitants and the surrounding environment free from submission. The aim of this article is to show how ecogothic serves as a theoretical approach to denounce the submission of the human and the more than human by means of colonial practices beside demonstrating that the real monsters are the colonizers.

Gothic Nature in Fantasy Fiction: The White Walkers as Dreadful Agents of Nature in Game of Thrones

Aylin Walder, Dr — 2024-11-01

By applying Elizabeth Parker’s seven theses (2020) to Game of Thrones as the keys to identifying Gothicised spaces, I assert that the icy and eerie environment north of the Wall manifests as Gothic Nature insofar as it fulfills all seven ways in which nature can become a Gothic threat: the northern space represents a hostile environment, associated with a postcolonial past, and connected to the human unconscious. The second part focuses on the creation of the White Walkers as Nature’s agents and their portrayal as dreadful entanglements that alter (non)human life. Introducing the notion of transcorporeality, the dualism human/nonhuman is deconstructed –since the White Walkers aren’t naturally born but created out of sacrificed human babies. The White Walkers and their army become one singular monstrous hyperobject that foregrounds how humanity is “at the mercy of larger forces of nature” (Smith and Hughes 2013, 6). The story reflects our responsibility for climate change. Following Gothic tradition, the dark ecology (Morton 2016) in the saga blurs “the lines between the terror sublime and the uncanny” (Tibbetts 2011, 5), thereby, the agency of Gothicised Nature is foregrounded and the White Walkers are established as mirrors for our anxieties about the future of our planet.

The State of Nature: Ecogothic (Mo)Other in Catalina Infante’s “Todas Somos una Misma Sombra”

Juan Ignacio Torres Montesinos, Dr — 2024-11-01

This paper analyzes “Todas somos una misma sombra,” a short story by Chilean writer Catalina Infante published in 2018. The story describes the evolution of a community where men extinguish and women, as a joint shadow, walk to interweave with nature. Sun has vanished so the analysis is conceived from the ecogothic premise of fear to climate disorder. Such an alteration is the symbolic result of the ecosocial system of anthropocene.The study considers the archetype of the state of nature proposed by English philosopherThomas Hobbes. It expresses the fear human beings experience before reaching a pact to live in society. Catalina Infante’s text describes an itinerary of be-coming where women’s perception of nature is summarized by the idea of (M)other. Due to a new social pact based upon ecofeminism, the primary perception of otherness turns into the comprehension of nature as mother. The sense of shelter creates an imperative of preservation. “Todas somos una misma sombra” condenses those arguments and shows the theoretical suitability of the state-of-nature concept to analyze ecogothic literature.

La Rebellion and Wilderness: Female Agency and Irish Nature in Elizabeth Griffith’s The History of Lady Barton (1771)

Lydia Freire Gargamala, Dr — 2024-11-01

This paper endeavors to establish a correlation between the portrayal of female characters and Irish wilderness in Elizabeth Griffith’s Gothic novel, The History of Lady Barton (1771). Deprived of agency and independence, female figures in the realm of Gothic fiction are often rendered as figures of otherness –alien, monstrous, and threatening– driven by a relentless pursuit of liberation from patriarchal constraints. Faced with the choice between madness, death or exile as defiant alternatives to submitting to societal repression, these characters become symbolic rebels against established norms, ultimately opting for a tormenting fate over submission. This portrayal positions them as figures of wildness and uncontrollability, echoing the untamed essence of nature itself. Therefore, by intertwining the fates of women like Louisa Barton and Olivia Walter with the chaotic and uncontrollable Irish landscape, Griffith’s narrative, enhances the complexity of her female characters, suggesting an innate
connection between their defiance and the tumultuous, uncontrollable forces inherent in the natural world. Through this lens, both women and nature emerge as sites of otherness, offering new avenues for resistance and empowerment.

Tears in Rain: An Ecogothic Hardboiled Tribute to Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Emilio Ramón García, Dr — 2024-11-01

Tears in Rain is set in Madrid in 2109, a large city in a heavily polluted dystopic world which has seen several wars, alien contacts, genetic engineering, teletransportation, pollution and dramatic climate changes due to ecophobia and a limitless appetite for resource exploitation. It is a world in which the management, privatization and monopolization of vital resources by large multinationals have caused scarcity; exacerbating the environmental injustice towards those who contribute least to it. Mixing the SF with the Postmodern EcoGothic and the hardboiled model, this fictional society is immersed in a civilizational crisis that affects our own conception as subjects. This situation of environmental injustice translates into social tensions and the marginalization of those humans, replicants and aliens who are forced to live in the most degraded areas. These underprivileged marginalized beings serve to renegotiate human identity, but also to ignite fanatical fundamentalisms that define their identity in aggressive opposition to the ‘other’. The goal of this article is to explore fear, the dissolution of the self, the construction of peoples as monstruous others, the preoccupation of bodies which are modified and nature as a space of crisis as markers of Postmodern EcoGothic in Rosa Montero’s novel.

“None of Them Knows About Floods or Anything About the Rivers:” Monstrous Kinships and Agency in Michael McDowell’s The Flood and The Levee

Gianluca Calio, Dr — 2024-11-01

This paper explores the disruption of the human/non-human binary in Michael McDowell’s Blackwater series, focusing on how the character of Elinor Dammert challenges traditional distinctions between humans and environment. Set in the Southern Gothic landscape of Lower Alabama, the analysis scrutinizes Elinor’s relationship with the region’s fluvial environment, emphasizing her role as a complex, shape-shifting gothic figure. Emerging mysteriously from the river after a flood, Elinor’s actions reflect a deep connection with both the human and non-human worlds, as she intervenes against anthropogenic alterations, particularly deforestation and proposed hydrogeological projects. By highlighting Elinor’s efforts to disrupt destructive human practices, the paper argues that her character can be seen as attempting to create kinship between humans and the landscape of Perdido, embodying an ecoGothic figure that transcends moral binaries. Elinor’s interventions will therefore reveal an alternative
form of ecological agency that emphasizes kin-making rather than domination or revenge.

An Ecogothic Reading of Sea Monsters: Deep Blue Sea (1999) and The Meg (2018)

Irene Sanz Alonso, Dr — 2024-11-01

Even though our planet is mostly covered by water, seas and oceans are still considered inhospitable environments where the force of nature can be appreciated in all its splendor. It is perhaps this unconquerable character that makes humans perceive marine ecosystems with a mixture of awe and horror, feelings which may be increased if we think of the unknown creatures that populate the depths of the ocean. This article will look at two films which portray both the wonders and horrors of nautical landscapes, Deep Blue Sea (1999) and The Meg (2018), and it will do so by using an ecogothic approach. The analysis will focus on why these movies could be catalogued as ecogothic by observing on their settings, their characters and their plot development. It will also analyze how humans relate to the marine ecosystem and to the creatures that inhabit it, particularly with different forms of sharks, including their ancestor, the megalodon, emphasizing how these relationships tend to be portrayed as
a fight for control. Furthermore, the representation of these nonhuman animals’ agency will also be considered with the aim of raising awareness about the dangers of humans’ attempts to control and manipulate nature.

From Ibsen to Ray: Transcultural Adaptation and Film Authorship in Ganashatru (An Enemy of the People, 1989)

Shyam Sundar Pal, Mr — 2024-11-01

Satyajit Ray’s Ganashatru (An Enemy of the People 1989) marks the first part of the final trilogy, with the subsequent two parts being Shakha Prashaka (Branches of the Tree 1990), and Agantuk (The Stranger 1991). Ray’s last three films are notable for their strong use of language against the prevailing state of corruption and decadence in society. Ganashatru shows how Dr. Ashoke Gupta, a medical practitioner in Chandipur, an imaginary town in West Bengal, fights against the town’s corrupt officials to decontaminate the temple’s holy water, spreading jaundice and other water-borne diseases. Enriching the oeuvre of Ray’s filmic adaptations, Ganashatru is an adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s play An Enemy of the People (1882). Since the source text is adapted from another culture, the paper identifies Ganashatru as a “transcultural adaptation,” borrowing the term from Linda Hutcheon. A theoretical analysis of film authorship is presented in this paper. Ray’s three critically important aspects of film authorship
are explored next –his inclination to adapt classic texts, his casting of a familiar set of actors, and the establishing of his protagonist’s resistance to corruption.