Los fantasmas de la casa: Reflexiones sobre el gótico en la obra de Carlos Fuentes

Abstract

In this study I explore the works of Carlos Fuentes "La gata de mi madre", "La buena compañía" and "Calixta Brand." I will discuss the use of Gothic imagery as a space for reflection on Latin American postcolonial reality, the preservation and suppression of memory and how this relationship is articulated through images such as houses, language, mirrors, ghosts and angels, symbols that become metaphors of the cultural space of the continent, its identity struggles, and abuses of power. The thread that ties this essay is the symbolic place of the house, based on Bachelard’s and Freud’s ideas, in order to explore the meaning and metaphors of the ghosts that haunt these stories and the relationship that develops between these metaphors, the use of Gothic elements and the social role of literature.