UC San Diego UC San Diego Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Exhuming caliban : gothic and madness in late twentieth and twenty-first - century Caribbean literary fictions Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0wv917tw Author Escudero, Andrew Mario Publication Date 2012 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO Exhuming Caliban: Gothic and Madness in Late Twentieth and Twenty–First – Century Caribbean Literary Fictions A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Literature by Andrew Mario Escudero Committee in Charge: Professor Rosaura Sánchez, Co–Chair Professor Shelley Streeby, Co–Chair Professor John D. Blanco Professor David G. Gutierrez Professor Kathryn Shevelow 2012 Copyright Andrew Mario Escudero All rights reserved, 2012 The dissertation of Andrew Mario Escudero is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication on microfilm and electronically: _________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ Co–Chair __________________________________________________________________ Co–Chair University of California, San Diego 2012 iii DEDICATION I dedicate this dissertation to my children Jahlon and Jahlin, and in the memory of my mother, Frances. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Signature Page………...……………………………………………………………… iii Dedication………...…………………………………………………………………... iv Table of Contents………...…………………………………………………………… v Acknowledgements………..…………………………………………………………. vi Curriculum Vitae……….....………………………………………………………….. vii Abstract……….…………………………………………………………….………… ix Introduction……….………………………………………………………….……….. 1 Chapter One The Father of Gothic: Horace Walpole…………………………….…….…………… 29 Chapter Two Constructing the Caribbean: Travel Narratives, Profit and power.….………….…..... 73 Chapter Three The Cornerstones of Gothic Literary Conventions……...…...……..………...……… 123 Chapter Four Gothic Literary Progenitors: Evil, Madness and the Supernatural…………………... 166 Chapter Five Globalized Phantoms: Postmodern Caribbean Hauntings and Apparitions….……… 237 Chapter Six The Gothic Caribbean/ Caribbean Gothic: A Tempestuous Chronicle….……..……. 286 Chapter Seven Breaking with Tradition: Gothic Conventions in Caribbean Fiction…….…..……… 348 Conclusion…………..………………………………………………………….…….. 406 Notes……...……………………………………………………………….…………. 436 Bibliography…………………………………………………………….……………. 460 v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation project would not have been possible without the instruction, inspiration and advice provided by the professors and administrative expertise of the staff of University of California, San Diego’s department of Literature. I thank the professors of my committee and the professors that I have had the opportunity to work with in classes at UCSD and San Diego State University. I also offer special thanks to professors Rosaura Sánchez, Stephen Cox, Peter Herman, Joanne Cornwell and Maria Sánchez, UCSD staff members Ana Minvielle, Thom Hill, Dawn Blessman and Kristin Carnohan, and my dear friend Karen Clayborne for their support during especially trying times. vi CURRICULUM VITAE EDUCATION 2012 Ph.D. Literature, University of California, San Diego. Dissertation: Exhuming Caliban: Gothic and Madness in Late Twentieth and Twenty–First – Century Caribbean Literature . Dissertation Director: Rosaura Sanchez (Ph.D. University of Texas). 2008 Advancement to Ph.D. Candidacy, Literatures in English, University of California, San Diego. Specialization: Early Modern British Literature, British and American Gothic literary genres, 20 th and 21 st century Anglophone, Francophone and Hispanophone Caribbean Literatures. Qualifying Committee: Co–Chair person Rosaura Sanchez, Ph.D., Co–Chair person Shelley Streeby, Ph.D., John D. Blanco, Ph.D., Kathryn Shevelow, Ph.D., David G. Gutierrez, Ph.D. 2002 B.A. with distinction in English Literature, minors in African–American Literature and Creative Writing at San Diego State University. 1979 B.A. Sociology and B.A. Economics, minor in English, San Diego State University. TEACHING EXPERIENCE Section Instructor (T.A.). Revelle College Humanities Writing Program at University of California, San Diego from Fall 2002 through Spring 2011. Director: Professor Stephen Cox, Ph.D. Instructional English and writing tutor. Athletics department at San Diego State University from Fall 2001 through Spring 2002. Assistant Director: Sabrina Youmans, M.A. Teaching Assistant and tutor. Remedial college writing program for the Rhetoric and Writing Department at San Diego State University from Fall 2001 through Spring 2002. Assistant Director: Professor Michael Underwood, M.A. Teaching Assistant, Instructional Aid, Emergency Substitute Teacher. Roosevelt Junior high school, San Diego Unified District Schools from Fall 1976 through Spring 1980. Supervising Teacher: Vanetta Griffin, M.A. vii RELATED EXPERIENCE Teacher’s Assistant, Instructional Aid and tutor in English and writing. San Diego State University’s Upward Bound Program, Summers of 2000 and 2001. San Diego State University AVID Program English, Writing and Math Teacher’s Assistant and Tutor for middle school children at Granger Middle School in National City 1999 and 2000. Volunteer English and Writing Tutor for inner–city youth at the San Diego Inner City Junior Golf Foundation 1999. Teacher’s Assistant, Instructional Aide and Student Mentor. San Diego State University’s Engineering Department. Super Summer Program in cooperation with the San Diego Foundation in the summer of 1999. English composition, expository and creative writing tutor. San Diego State University’s College Readiness Program, Division of Undergraduate Studies from Fall 1999 through Fall 2000. LANGUAGES Semi–fluency and reading proficiency for research in Spanish. MEMBERSHIPS Sigma Tau Delta International English Honor Society 2001 Modern Literature Association 2002 REFERENCES Rosaura Sánchez, Ph.D. – Department of Literature, U.C. San Diego John D. Blanco, Ph.D. – Department of Literature, U.C. San Diego Stephen Cox, Ph.D. – Revelle Humanities Writing Program, U.C. San Diego John Hoon Lee, Ph.D. – Revelle Humanities Writing Program, U.C. San Diego Antony Lyon Ph.D. – Revelle Humanities Writing Program, U.C. San Diego viii ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION Exhuming Caliban: Gothic and Madness in Late Twentieth and Twenty–First – Century Caribbean Literary Fictions by Andrew Mario Escudero Doctor of Philosophy in Literature University of California, San Diego, 2012 Professor Rosaura Sánchez, Co–Chair Professor Shelly Streeby, Co–Chair Exhuming Caliban: Gothic and Madness in Late Twentieth and Twenty–First – Century Caribbean Literary Fictions identifies a late twentieth and twenty–first – century (1980–2007) creative literary trend that is characterized by applications of quasi–gothic and traditional gothic literary conventions and features in Caribbean fictions, and extensively investigates the historical, cultural and literary origins of each contributing aspect of this phenomenon. This dissertation analyzes the interactive relationship between knowledge and discourse and its discursive power in the formation of representation processes. I, then, trace the historical origins and literary genealogies of ix gothic literature to mark the cultural and discursive connections between Western European and Caribbean literatures. In addition to this literary genealogy, I present a psychoanalytical analysis that configures a psychological profile to explain an overarching thematic emphasis on madness in gothic literature. I examine the Western European historical and cultural preoccupation with madness and its diagnoses, a trend that influenced the formations of many late medieval, early modern and modern Western European social norms, cultural systems, political institutions, philosophical notions, ideological principles and literary production. It is within the context of Europe’s sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth – centuries’ development of a “cultural madness” that I connect Western European literature and gothic literary conventions to the development of Caribbean literature. I illustrate how this concept of madness permeated the discursive process that constructed the Caribbean region and its inhabitants within preconceptions formed by the Western European Imaginary. I, then, illustrate how Caribbean manifestations of Western European “culture of madness” have been internalized by generations of Caribbean inhabitants and show how these conventions and features function to reveal the hidden, unspoken unspeakable in late twentieth and twenty–first – century Caribbean literary works. I contend that this literary trend allows Caribbean writers to rewrite Caribbean subjectivities on their own terms, negating those constructed by the European Imaginary, and to address the general invisibility that shrouds the region and its peoples in the midst of global neocolonial indifference and exploitation. x Introduction Gothic Hauntings in Caribbean Late Twentieth and Twenty–First – Century Literature endeavors to provide further insight into a well–studied and actively developing literary genre called “Caribbean literature.” I hope to develop an intricate examination that offers a genuine understanding of the discursive processes