Drawing on the MLA 2026 Presidential Theme of Family Resemblances, we frame the Churail as a figure of uncanny resemblance: a spectral kin whose return marks unresolved violence and whose hauntings call attention to alternative forms of lineage—matrilineal, affective, folkloric, and political. Each paper examines how the Churail functions as a Gothic double, a figure that simultaneously mirrors and subverts the normative roles of wife, mother, or daughter, while also becoming a potent symbol of feminist refusal.
This topic is especially timely given the growing scholarly interest in postcolonial Gothic, feminist hauntology, and the monstrous feminine, as well as the recent resurgence of South Asian horror cinema and literature. While there has been robust scholarship on the Gothic in Euro-American contexts, South Asian Gothic figures such as the Churail have received less sustained critical attention, particularly in comparative, regional, and feminist frameworks. This panel addresses that gap by offering a cross-linguistic, transregional, and interdisciplinary conversation on the spectral politics of South Asian narrative traditions.
Each paper will present a 12-minute talk, followed by 15 minutes of unstructured discussion with the audience. Presentations will foreground their research while also allowing space for dialogue and shared theoretical reflection.
- Anmol Dutta analyzes the Bengali film Bulbbul (2020) and its use of the Churail figure to critique caste, colonialism, and patriarchal domesticity. The paper examines how the film recasts the Churail as a bhadramahila—an elegant upper-caste woman—thereby domesticating the Gothic while also using digital platforms like Netflix to globalize a localized feminist folklore.
- Lisin Tharania explores the Tamil film Maya (2015), arguing that female ghost figures in Tamil horror cinema function as agents of transgression and retaliation. The paper highlights the Gothic potential of Tamil cinema to center maternal hauntings and feminist resistance, challenging dominant gender norms in regional cinematic traditions.
- Sanchari Sur critiques the film Pari (2018) for its representation of a Bangladeshi Muslim refugee as a Churail. The paper interrogates how the film simultaneously reclaims and reinscribes gendered and religious otherness, arguing that the figure of the monstrous feminine becomes a vehicle for nationalist anxieties around miscegenation and migration.
- Labiba Naeem examines the courtesan-turned-ghost in Bhool Bhulaiyaa (2007) and the Stree films (2018, 2024), tracing a lineage between the historical tawa’if and the cinematic Churail. The paper considers how these figures invoke matrilineal inheritance and feminine artistry, complicating the binary of seduction and vengeance within the horror-comedy genre.
Together, these papers speak to a range of linguistic, cultural, and national contexts—Bengali, Tamil, Urdu, and Hindi—while converging on shared themes of gendered haunting, disrupted inheritance, and spectral resistance. By placing these figures in dialogue, the panel not only expands the archive of South Asian Gothic but also challenges the limits of feminist and genre theory as currently applied in postcolonial contexts.
This session brings together graduate students working across diverse institutional, regional, and disciplinary contexts. The panelists represent institutions in India, Canada, and the United States, and their research spans South Asian film and literature, feminist theory, postcolonial studies, and the Gothic. Their work engages with multiple linguistic and cultural traditions—Bengali, Tamil, Hindi, and Urdu—and offers perspectives shaped by both regional specificity and transnational critique. Together, they offer a nuanced and interdisciplinary conversation that reflects the intellectual diversity and collaborative spirit at the heart of this year’s MLA theme.