ABSTRACT
The Gothic is a constantly changing and mutating genre and, since its emergence, has shifted toward new horizons and different cultures, and this includes Mexico. Certain hallmarks of Mexico’s past create an uncanny effect, in particular within the framework of ritual sacrifice, the dual nature of the Aztec gods, the blurring of boundaries between life and death, and the intermingling of spatial and temporal boundaries. The uncanny is also associated with the figure of the double and the return of the dead. There is a fear, or perhaps a desire, that unquiet ghosts from colonial times or Aztec revenants may rise up in the present, thus subverting notions of modernity and expressing anxieties regarding identity. This chapter addresses how the violent eruption of ancient and malign forces haunts contemporary Mexican fiction. In particular, it explores the uncanny as a positive force, representing freedom and/or subversion within a Mexican context.
