Gothic technologies in Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel’s Áwala cu sangui (2000): between fracture and continuity
Abstract
This paper aims to examine the neocolonial dynamics at play in the novel Áwala cu sangui (2000) by Equatoguinean writer Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel. The study draws on postcolonial theories and psychoanalysis to reveal “gothic technologies”. Two technologies stand out: one the one hand, the ship as a technology of control (equally linked to the history of slavery and colonization), and on the other hand, the presence or absence of electrical light, along with its spectral content, embodied by the figure of the “sandjawel”, which reflects the internal contradictions within the postcolonial state. In this sense, the study proposes two interpretations that are not presented here as dichotomous: the gothic as fracture and the gothic as continuity.
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