EcoGothic Entanglements: Fungal Colonialism and Decaying Hegemonies in Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Mexican Gothic

Abstract

The present paper claims that Mexican Gothic (2020) written by Silvia Moreno-Garcia uses the framework of EcoGothic in order to anatomize the interlinked histories of colonialism, racial capitalism, and patriarchy. Based on a theoretical synthesis of EcoGothic scholarship, postcolonial ecocriticism, and fungal horror, this paper analyzes the way in which the novel makes the critique of the material and ideological violence of colonial history. Through a close reading, the paper investigates three key elements: the decaying manor of High Place as a toxic postcolonial ecosystem; the sentient mycelial network, or "the gloom," as a literalization of the "environmental unconscious" that archives repressed histories of exploitation; and the Doyle family’s eugenicist ideology as a manifestation of Simon C. Estok’s concept of "ecophobia." The analysis shows that Moreno-Garcia plays with the classic tropes of Gothic by setting the horror against a not-supernatural backdrop of an ecology of monsters that was formed through the instrumentalization of the land, bodies viewed through the racial lens, and women. The paper concludes that through its ambiguous resolution, Mexican Gothic performs a "decolonising" of the Gothic genre itself, ultimately questioning whether the spores of colonial trauma can ever be fully purged from the landscapes they have contaminated.