Ecozombie and Trauma Revenants:

Haunts of the New World by Gabriela Damián Miravete

Authors

  • M. Elizabeth Ginway

Abstract

This article examines Espanto del mundo nuevo [Haunts of the New World] (2022), a text by Mexican author Gabriela Damián Miravete. As an environmental gothic horror story, it features a revenant or ecozombie who represents the forgotten victims of the slow violence of environmental degradation. In the story, the figure of the ecozombie time-travels to earthquakes that have devastated Mexico City over a period of several centuries, guided by the Mesoamerican canine deity Xolotl. Featuring analysis based on Donna Haraway’s idea of the Chthulucene and Rosi Braidotti’s theory of posthuman feminism, the article interprets the story as a proposal for a more egalitarian relationship between humans and the nonhuman natural world. Through the abject transformations of the body, the ecozombie figure paradoxically emerges as a sign of hope for collective survival in the face of the ravages of the Anthropocene.

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Published

2024-10-02