Revista Canaria de Estudios Ingleses https://www.ull.es/revistas/index.php/estudios-ingleses <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Biannual</strong> journal on <strong>Enlish studies</strong>. It publishes <strong>double-blind peer reviewed</strong> works on <strong>English culture, literature and linguistics</strong> which may promote academic debate. Each issue holds a <strong>monography</strong> and a <strong>miscellany</strong> part; <strong>book reviews</strong> and <strong>notes</strong> are also welcome.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> en-US rceing@ull.edu.es (Revista Canaria de Estudios Ingleses) revistas@ull.edu.es (Revistas ull) Fri, 01 Nov 2024 15:04:07 +0000 OJS 3.1.1.4 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 60 The Ecogothic as a Catalyst of Climate Emergency: The Impact of Monstrosity https://www.ull.es/revistas/index.php/estudios-ingleses/article/view/7045 <p>The present issue means an opportunity to discuss the application of Ecogothic as a theoretical approach to literary and filmic texts. This public demand&nbsp;responds to a growing tendency to expand the studies on ecocriticism towards new&nbsp;fields of research. It is also clear evidence of the human preoccupation about the&nbsp;future of the planet Earth in a world in permanent crisis: politically, ideologically,&nbsp;economically and foremost environmentally.</p> Imelda Martín Junquera, Dr, Cristina Casado Presa, Dr ##submission.copyrightStatement## https://www.ull.es/revistas/index.php/estudios-ingleses/article/view/7045 Fri, 01 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Ding Dong, the Evil Witch is Not Dead: Monstrosity and Ecophobia in Las brujas de Westwood and Wytches https://www.ull.es/revistas/index.php/estudios-ingleses/article/view/7046 <p>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&nbsp;the boundary between human and nonhuman nature. In these works, the witch embodies the&nbsp;chaotic and uncontrollable aspects of the natural world, disrupting conventional boundaries&nbsp;and redefining humanity’s relationship with nature. This portrayal challenges the anthropocentric&nbsp;view that positions the environment as a resource to be dominated and exploited.</p> Cristina Casado Presa, Dr ##submission.copyrightStatement## http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0 https://www.ull.es/revistas/index.php/estudios-ingleses/article/view/7046 Fri, 01 Nov 2024 13:49:36 +0000 Land Property, Land Destruction: Ecogothic vs. Capitalism in Bram Stoker’s The Snake Pass https://www.ull.es/revistas/index.php/estudios-ingleses/article/view/7047 <p>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.&nbsp;Beyond the narration of the love story between Arthur and Norah, the novel depicts a&nbsp;Western Ireland scenario in which the chrematistic aims of the characters coalesce with the&nbsp;destruction of the landscape and, in consequence, the destruction of the environment, for&nbsp;a treasure is said to be hidden in the bog. Thus, the conflict coming of the extemporaneous&nbsp;ownership of the land (Arthur is English) leads to a questioning of how the ambition based&nbsp;on capitalistic-industrialist impulses (the treasure-hunt is rational and machine-ridden)<br>means the destruction of the environment and the perversion of the community that had&nbsp;traditionally been attached to that part of the country. The goal of this article is to explore&nbsp;how Stoker ciphered all these elements, creating an original literary product that announces&nbsp;some of the key conflicts in the British Isles (land property) when seen through the lens of&nbsp;modern criticism.</p> José Manuel Correoso Rodenas, Dr ##submission.copyrightStatement## https://www.ull.es/revistas/index.php/estudios-ingleses/article/view/7047 Fri, 01 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Et Verbum Caro Factum Est: Monstrosity and Transcorporeality in Mexican Gothic https://www.ull.es/revistas/index.php/estudios-ingleses/article/view/7048 <p>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&nbsp;a remote village. She unveils the secrets of the Doyle’s family, hidden behind the walls of&nbsp;the manor and in the crypt, and investigates the relationship of the members of the house&nbsp;with the house, while they keep her trapped inside. Noemí, the protagonist is helped by the&nbsp;ghost of Ruth, a deceased member of the family, and both women together end the rule of&nbsp;the patriarch of the family, Howard Doyle. The final collapse of the house and the death of&nbsp;the members of the family means an end to the colonial period of the area leaving the local&nbsp;inhabitants and the surrounding environment free from submission. The aim of this article&nbsp;is to show how ecogothic serves as a theoretical approach to denounce the submission of the&nbsp;human and the more than human by means of colonial practices beside demonstrating&nbsp; that&nbsp;the real monsters are the colonizers.</p> Imelda Martín Junquera, Dr ##submission.copyrightStatement## http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0 https://www.ull.es/revistas/index.php/estudios-ingleses/article/view/7048 Fri, 01 Nov 2024 14:11:30 +0000 Gothic Nature in Fantasy Fiction: The White Walkers as Dreadful Agents of Nature in Game of Thrones https://www.ull.es/revistas/index.php/estudios-ingleses/article/view/7049 <p>By applying Elizabeth Parker’s seven theses (2020) to Game of Thrones as the keys to identifying&nbsp;Gothicised spaces, I assert that the icy and eerie environment north of the Wall manifests&nbsp;as Gothic Nature insofar as it fulfills all seven ways in which nature can become a Gothic&nbsp;threat: the northern space represents a hostile environment, associated with a postcolonial&nbsp;past, and connected to the human unconscious. The second part focuses on the creation of&nbsp;the White Walkers as Nature’s agents and their portrayal as dreadful entanglements that alter&nbsp;(non)human life. Introducing the notion of transcorporeality, the dualism human/nonhuman&nbsp;is deconstructed –since the White Walkers aren’t naturally born but created out of sacrificed&nbsp;human babies. The White Walkers and their army become one singular monstrous hyperobject&nbsp;that foregrounds how humanity is “at the mercy of larger forces of nature” (Smith and Hughes&nbsp;2013, 6). The story reflects our responsibility for climate change.&nbsp; Following Gothic tradition,&nbsp;the dark ecology (Morton 2016) in the saga blurs “the lines between the terror sublime and the&nbsp;uncanny” (Tibbetts 2011, 5), thereby, the agency of Gothicised Nature is foregrounded and&nbsp;the White Walkers are established as mirrors for our anxieties about the future of our planet.</p> Aylin Walder, Dr ##submission.copyrightStatement## http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0 https://www.ull.es/revistas/index.php/estudios-ingleses/article/view/7049 Fri, 01 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000 The State of Nature: Ecogothic (Mo)Other in Catalina Infante’s “Todas Somos una Misma Sombra” https://www.ull.es/revistas/index.php/estudios-ingleses/article/view/7050 <p>This paper analyzes “Todas somos una misma sombra,” a short story by Chilean writer Catalina&nbsp;Infante published in 2018. The story describes the evolution of a community where men&nbsp;extinguish and women, as a joint shadow, walk to interweave with nature. Sun has vanished&nbsp;so the analysis is conceived from the ecogothic premise of fear to climate disorder. Such an&nbsp;alteration is the symbolic result of the ecosocial system of&nbsp; anthropocene.The study considers&nbsp;the archetype of the state of nature proposed by English philosopherThomas Hobbes. It&nbsp;expresses the fear human beings experience before reaching a pact to live in society. Catalina&nbsp;Infante’s text describes an itinerary of be-coming where women’s&nbsp; perception of nature is&nbsp;summarized by the idea of (M)other. Due to a new social pact based upon ecofeminism,&nbsp;the primary perception of otherness turns into the comprehension of nature as mother. The&nbsp;sense of shelter creates an imperative of preservation. “Todas somos una misma sombra”&nbsp;condenses those arguments and shows the theoretical suitability of the state-of-nature concept&nbsp;to analyze ecogothic literature.</p> Juan Ignacio Torres Montesinos, Dr ##submission.copyrightStatement## http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0 https://www.ull.es/revistas/index.php/estudios-ingleses/article/view/7050 Fri, 01 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000 La Rebellion and Wilderness: Female Agency and Irish Nature in Elizabeth Griffith’s The History of Lady Barton (1771) https://www.ull.es/revistas/index.php/estudios-ingleses/article/view/7051 <p>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).&nbsp;Deprived of agency and independence, female figures in the realm of Gothic fiction are often&nbsp;rendered as figures of otherness –alien, monstrous, and threatening– driven by a relentless&nbsp;pursuit of liberation from patriarchal constraints. Faced with the choice between madness,&nbsp;death or exile as defiant alternatives to submitting to societal repression, these characters&nbsp;become symbolic rebels against established norms, ultimately opting for a tormenting fate&nbsp;over submission. This portrayal positions them as figures of wildness and uncontrollability,&nbsp;echoing the untamed essence of nature itself. Therefore, by intertwining the fates of women&nbsp;like Louisa Barton and Olivia Walter with the chaotic and uncontrollable Irish landscape,&nbsp;Griffith’s narrative, enhances the complexity of her female characters, suggesting an innate<br>connection between their defiance and the tumultuous, uncontrollable forces inherent in&nbsp;the natural world. Through this lens, both women and nature emerge as sites of otherness, offering new avenues for resistance and empowerment.</p> Lydia Freire Gargamala, Dr ##submission.copyrightStatement## http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0 https://www.ull.es/revistas/index.php/estudios-ingleses/article/view/7051 Fri, 01 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Tears in Rain: An Ecogothic Hardboiled Tribute to Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? https://www.ull.es/revistas/index.php/estudios-ingleses/article/view/7052 <p>Tears in Rain is set in Madrid in 2109, a large city in a heavily polluted dystopic world which&nbsp;has seen several wars, alien contacts, genetic engineering, teletransportation, pollution and&nbsp;dramatic climate changes due to ecophobia and a limitless appetite for resource exploitation.&nbsp;It is a world in which the management, privatization and monopolization of vital resources&nbsp;by large multinationals have caused scarcity; exacerbating the environmental injustice towards&nbsp;those who contribute least to it. Mixing the SF with the Postmodern EcoGothic and the hardboiled&nbsp;model, this fictional society is immersed in a civilizational crisis that affects our own&nbsp;conception as subjects. This situation of environmental injustice&nbsp; translates into social tensions&nbsp;and the marginalization of those humans, replicants and aliens who are forced to live in the&nbsp;most degraded areas. These underprivileged marginalized beings serve to renegotiate human&nbsp;identity, but also to ignite fanatical fundamentalisms that define their identity in aggressive&nbsp;opposition to the ‘other’. The goal of this article is to explore fear, the dissolution of the self, the&nbsp;construction of peoples as monstruous others, the preoccupation of bodies which are modified&nbsp;and nature as a space of crisis as markers of Postmodern EcoGothic in Rosa Montero’s novel.</p> Emilio Ramón García, Dr ##submission.copyrightStatement## http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0 https://www.ull.es/revistas/index.php/estudios-ingleses/article/view/7052 Fri, 01 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000 “None of Them Knows About Floods or Anything About the Rivers:” Monstrous Kinships and Agency in Michael McDowell’s The Flood and The Levee https://www.ull.es/revistas/index.php/estudios-ingleses/article/view/7053 <p>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&nbsp;distinctions between humans and environment. Set in the Southern Gothic landscape of&nbsp;Lower Alabama, the analysis scrutinizes Elinor’s relationship with the region’s fluvial environment,&nbsp;emphasizing her role as a complex, shape-shifting gothic figure. Emerging mysteriously&nbsp;from the river after a flood, Elinor’s actions reflect a deep connection with both the human&nbsp;and non-human worlds, as she intervenes against anthropogenic alterations, particularly deforestation&nbsp;and proposed hydrogeological projects. By highlighting Elinor’s efforts to disrupt&nbsp;destructive human practices, the paper argues that her character can be seen as attempting&nbsp;to create kinship between humans and the landscape of Perdido, embodying an ecoGothic&nbsp;figure that transcends moral binaries. Elinor’s interventions will therefore reveal an alternative<br>form of ecological agency that emphasizes kin-making rather than domination or revenge.</p> Gianluca Calio, Dr ##submission.copyrightStatement## http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0 https://www.ull.es/revistas/index.php/estudios-ingleses/article/view/7053 Fri, 01 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000 An Ecogothic Reading of Sea Monsters: Deep Blue Sea (1999) and The Meg (2018) https://www.ull.es/revistas/index.php/estudios-ingleses/article/view/7054 <p>Even though our planet is mostly covered by water, seas and oceans are still considered inhospitable&nbsp;environments where the force of nature can be appreciated in all its splendor. It is&nbsp;perhaps this unconquerable character that makes humans perceive marine ecosystems with&nbsp;a mixture of awe and horror, feelings which may be increased if we think of the unknown&nbsp;creatures that populate the depths of the ocean. This article will look at two films which&nbsp;portray both the wonders and horrors of nautical landscapes, Deep Blue Sea (1999) and The&nbsp;Meg (2018), and it will do so by using an ecogothic approach. The analysis will focus on why&nbsp;these movies could be catalogued as ecogothic by observing on their settings, their characters&nbsp;and their plot development. It will also analyze how humans relate to the marine ecosystem&nbsp;and to the creatures that inhabit it, particularly with different forms of sharks, including&nbsp;their ancestor, the megalodon, emphasizing how these relationships tend to be portrayed as<br>a fight for control. Furthermore, the representation of these nonhuman animals’ agency will&nbsp;also be considered with the aim of raising awareness about the dangers of humans’ attempts&nbsp;to control and manipulate nature.</p> Irene Sanz Alonso, Dr ##submission.copyrightStatement## http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0 https://www.ull.es/revistas/index.php/estudios-ingleses/article/view/7054 Fri, 01 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000 From Ibsen to Ray: Transcultural Adaptation and Film Authorship in Ganashatru (An Enemy of the People, 1989) https://www.ull.es/revistas/index.php/estudios-ingleses/article/view/7055 <p>Satyajit Ray’s Ganashatru (An Enemy of the People 1989) marks the first part of the final trilogy,&nbsp;with the subsequent two parts being Shakha Prashaka (Branches of the Tree 1990), and&nbsp;Agantuk (The Stranger 1991). Ray’s last three films are notable for their strong use of language&nbsp;against the prevailing state of corruption and decadence in society. Ganashatru shows how&nbsp;Dr. Ashoke Gupta, a medical practitioner in Chandipur, an imaginary town in West Bengal,&nbsp;fights against the town’s corrupt officials to decontaminate the temple’s holy water, spreading&nbsp;jaundice and other water-borne diseases. Enriching the oeuvre of Ray’s filmic adaptations,&nbsp;Ganashatru is an adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s play An Enemy of the People (1882). Since the&nbsp;source text is adapted from another culture, the paper identifies Ganashatru as a “transcultural&nbsp;adaptation,” borrowing the term from Linda Hutcheon. A theoretical analysis of film&nbsp;authorship is presented in this paper. Ray’s three critically important aspects of film authorship<br>are explored next –his inclination to adapt classic texts, his casting of a familiar set of&nbsp;actors, and the establishing of his protagonist’s resistance to corruption.</p> Shyam Sundar Pal, Mr, Ananya Ghoshal, Dr ##submission.copyrightStatement## http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0 https://www.ull.es/revistas/index.php/estudios-ingleses/article/view/7055 Fri, 01 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000