Postcolonial and Asian Gothic Creative Works and the Creation of New Life Through Themes of Death, Destruction, and Decolonization A Descriptive Annotated Bibliography

Abstract

This document seeks to compile descriptions of critical analyses exploring written and filmed works that are centred on postcolonial and Asian Gothic themes. Postcolonial and Asian Gothic works emerged as a reaction to the effects of colonisation, becoming vehicles for the lasting trauma of colonisatio n, as well as expressions of resistance against this trauma. It was a way for creators that were part of the colonised community to take back control of their narrative. In Western Gothic literature, many of the countries which were colonised were depicted as “The Other,” a foreign, alien entity that needed to be subjugated and contained so that it did not taint the structures of the west. Regaining control for the colonised meant taking the very tropes of Gothic literature that were used to restrain them, and using them to expose and shatter the restraining bonds. As such, the tropes and motifs between Gothic and postcolonial and Asian Gothic literature often overlap, while the themes they explore are polar opposites. Discourse on this topic examines how this shattering occurs, and if there is a pattern that emerges from postcolonial and Asian Gothic works from around the globe.

This descriptive annotated bibliography will include criticism on as many works from around the globe as can be found in the dur ation of compiling this bibliography. It will serve primarily as an academic aid for students conducting research on this topic, or composing an essay on novels or films that belong in this genre. However, it can also serve non-academic purposes, for those pursuing this area of topic out of curiosity or interest.

Due to the limitations of word count, this annotated bibliography is intended to be a diving board of sort for researchers. Its purpose is to provide an idea of the expansiveness of postcolonial and Asian Gothic works, and the growing scholarly publications around them.