Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book offers critical readings grounded on historical, sociological, postcolonial, and postmodernist studies. It also offers an innovative analytical approach to the cultural and socio-historical events of Argentina, Chile, and Mexico through their representations in Gothic works. The book considers haunting in Juan Rulfo's novel Pedro Paramo a reminder of the social fragmentation of Mexico in the twentieth century. It examines the transformations that the Gothic undergoes in different contexts and how these adaptations engage with local social concerns related to violence, coloniality, progress, and social inequality. The book focuses on the cinema of Colombian filmmakers Luis Ospina and Carlos Mayolo, as well as on the literature of Andres Caicedo. It discusses current directions of the Gothic, examining Latin American and Caribbean texts in relation to Postmodern conceptualizations of parody, the grotesque, and/or recent critical notions of globalgothic and post-Gothic.