With the publication of Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto, Gothic as a genre emerged in the 18^th century, a period marked by a rapid embracing of the capitalist mode of production. This incipient literary form, abounding in spectral vestiges and dread, has continuously transformed, providing fertile ground for exploring cultural anxieties and societal upheavals. To women writers, the Gothic provided tools for mediating transgression and breaking inhibitions and prohibitions. Doing so allowed them to engage in symbolic resistance and ideological subversion, articulating a counter-narrative to the emergent bourgeoise society. Consequently, it was under the impact of women Gothic authors such as Ann Radcliffe, Mary Shelly, and Charlotte Bronte that gothic readership expanded exponentially. Thus, Gothic isn’t merely a mode of literary expression but an epistemic vector through which the contradictions of modernity are negotiated.

In Latin America, women authors have ingeniously appropriated and rearticulated the gothic register, imbuing it with a distinctly Latin American resonance. For instance, Amparo Dávila, a renounced figure of Mexican literature, dallied with the elements of spectral and supernatural in her stories and novels, disrupting the quotidian with an eerie unease. In Argentina, Alejandra Pizarnik, in her seminal work La Condesa Sangriente (The Bloody Countess)(1966), similarly navigates the lacunae between the horror and the fantastic weaving a tapestry that is at once grotesque and sublime. For the current generation of women authors, gothic, replete with its macabre, haunting, and supernatural elements, offers a potent medium to inscribe and translate the anxieties of gender-based violence, environmental destruction, and neoliberal exploitation.

This panel looks into such articulations and explores how contemporary women authors have renewed this genre to question patriarchal norms and address modern-day anxieties, offering a compelling framework for examining urgent issues like gender-based violence, ecological destruction, and socio-political unrest. By examining the works of various writers, this panel seeks to investigate how Gothic motifs are employed as tools for negotiating socio-cultural tensions and disruptions. The session will demonstrate how these narratives continue to offer potent cultural commentary in today's world.

In our opening paper, Sarah Revilla-Sanchez examines the Gothic continuities in the works of Amparo Dávila and Atenea Cruz, focusing on themes of women's bodily autonomy and domestic anxiety. She compares Dávila's "La Señorita Julia" and "El último Verano" (Last Summer) with Cruz's "Una Mujer Solitaria" (A Lonely Woman) and "Después del Fuego (After the Fire)" showcasing their use of Gothic metaphors to critique societal norms around motherhood and female independence. Drawing on Gothic Studies and Latin American Gender Theories, Sarah argues that Cruz extends Dávila's legacy by engaging with contemporary feminist debates in Mexico, illustrating the Gothic's enduring role in challenging violence against women.

Our second presenter, Natalia Arango provides an eco-critical analysis of Fernanda Trias' "El monte de las Furias," (The Hill of Wrath) where the mountain emerges as a "monstrous character" signifying anti-colonial resistance. Employing the phenomenology of space, Natalia posits nature as an active participant rather than a passive setting. This reimagining reframes the Gothic, emphasizing the relationship between humans and landscapes that mirror societal memories and ecological anxieties. Trias' work challenges the logic of exploitation, presenting the uncanny aspects of nature as a narrative and epistemic force that invites reflection on both personal and collective human experiences.

Lastly, Joaquín Venturini, expands the discussion and moves it beyond the uncanny or the unheimlich, and explores Fernanda Trias’ "Mugre Rosa, (Pink Slime)" focusing on her depiction of ecological catastrophe through elements of the Gothic and science fiction. Highlighting Trias's use of evocative, amphibious imagery, Venturini examines how her work transcends straightforward ecological anxieties to create a complex sensory poetic experience. He connects Trias with earlier Latin American women writers like María Luisa Bombal and Rosario Ferré, exploring motifs of water and swamp that underscore feminine autonomy. This panel showcases the diverse ways contemporary Latin American authors utilize Gothic elements to explore personal, social, and environmental issues. By highlighting intersections between Gothic traditions and Latin American cultural narratives, this panel participates in salient conversations around how these stories resonate globally, bringing Gothic literature to the forefront of cultural critique and artistic innovation. In conclusion, the panel emphasizes the significance of the Gothic and its various iterations—the fantastical, horror presents these authors with a “room of our own” to make sense of, express, resist, and respond to the neoliberal crisis.