Spanish and Latin American Women's Gothic

I am applying for a RIG to support archival fieldwork to study the gothic literature written by women in 21st-century Spain, Mexico and Argentina. In parallel to the advance of grassroots feminist movements that respond to femicides and sexist violence in these Spanish-speaking countries (such as the movement #NiUnaMenos [Not one woman less]), contemporary cultural products created by women are using Gothic and horror imageries to explore and give visibility to women artists and writers. Some of the texts I will initially consider are written by Mariana Enríquez, Ana María Shua and Samantha Schweblin (Argentina), Daniela Tarazona, Adriana Díaz Enciso and Carmen Boullosa (Mexico), and Elia Barceló, Patricia Esteban Erlés and Pilar Pedraza (Spain), among others. This study seeks to foster a transnational dialogue exploring the importance of these (and other) woman-made cultural products on generalised perceptions of femininity, women, and women’s roles in Spanish-speaking societies. Studying Gothic literary productions from a comparative, intercultural perspective, this project aims to understand the issues facing women today, and how authors are using non-canonical literary forms to respond to these issues and to propose new ways of understanding the role of women in their societies.