Justin D. Edwards
Search for other papers by Justin D. Edwards in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Close
‘She saw a soucouyant’
Locating the globalgothic
Abstract only
Log-in for full text

This chapter presents analyses of textual dislocations and oral transformations of gothic narratives within a Canadian diasporic novel, David Chariandy's Soucouyant, which employs transnational gothic tropes from the vampire to the soucouyant. The globalgothic of Soucouyant attempts to circumvent the fears and anxieties of a breakdown in local communities and personal subjectivity. The diasporic shifts in boundaries and the migratory flights found in Soucouyant invoke a politics of location that disrupts points of order and invades the strongholds of reason. In the narrator's description of the soucouyant, skin plays a central role. Soucouyant moves fluidly from spirit possession and vampirism to the suffering caused by the overdetermined signifier known as presenile dementia. By linking such figures to the degenerative illness, Chariandy is primarily interested in an incapacitating state of unbecoming.

  • Collapse
  • Expand

All of MUP's digital content including Open Access books and journals is now available on manchesterhive.

 

Editor:

Metrics

All Time Past Year Past 30 Days
Abstract Views 916 214 26
Full Text Views 98 4 0
PDF Downloads 43 2 0