Tropical Gothic.
“Gothic – relating to a style of fiction characterized by the use of desolate or remote settings and macabre, mysterious, or violent incidents.”
The title ‘Tropical Gothic’ for me first came up as shared black and white photographs, mostly of palm trees initiated by my friend Lawrence English. We began to exchange similar images and eventually from my part they began to include images other than palm trees, such as contemporary beach side architecture for example.
When I pursued Tropical Gothic on line a collection of short stories came up with that title plus The Woman Who Had Two Navels And Tales Of The Tropical Gothic by the Filipino writer Nick Joaquin.
Following more links I came across a blog, ‘Tropical Gothic’ from Daniel Sa where he writes –
“Establishing the concept of Tropical Gothic as a critical term to investigate specific cultural traditions of the supernatural and the strange in the warmer parts of the globe is not an easy task. At first glance the expression itself seems to be rather contradictory; an oxymoron that combines the opposing ideas of ‘solar’ and ‘gloom’ in one concept. Academics that do not work in the field of Gothic Studies question the value of applying the Gothic – a literary and critical term originated in Britain – to the investigation of texts from other traditions.” He goes on to say that some argue that “..the category of Magic Realism already covers the tradition of the supernatural and the strange.”
The Gothic Imagination –
“Tropical Gothic examines Gothic within a specific geographical area of ‘the South’…as well as trans-national movements of the Gothic…Tropical Gothic includes, but is by no means limited to, a reflection on a region where European colonial powers fought intensively against indigenous populations and against each other for control of land and resources.”
Stevenson “devoted a chapter of his travel book In the South Seas to an analysis of the “graveyard stories” he encountered throughout the Pacific, products of the “horrified nocturnal imagination, stories of the dead preying on the living, of spirits preying on the dead, of bush-demons and devil-women.” (Roselyn Jolly-South Seas Gothic-https://muse.jhu.edu/article/366611/summary)
Louis Becke (1855-1913) was an Australian writer who spent most of his life as a sailor, trader and short story writer moving around the Pacific Islands where most of his stories are set; fiction based mostly on his personal experiences with blackbirding (kidnapping) pirates, south sea islanders, pearl divers, unscrupulous white colonial traders and wild characters in general of both sexes.
Greg Dening (1931-2008) was an Australian historian of the Pacific and its people and people that travelled there. Although not fiction his ‘stories’ are filled with real ‘tropical gothic’. Consider one of his books The Death Of William Gooch for instance –
“William Gooch died at Waimea on the island of Oahu in the Hawaiian chain. Pahupu, Hawaiian warriors ‘cut-in-two’ by their tattoos, killed him there. He was only twenty-two. Gooch’s is a short life indeed.. Greg Dening uses the incident of his murder as the basis for a penetrating study of historical narrative and meaning. Gooch, (was) the young astronomer on board the ship the Daedalus..”
Lefkadio Hearn, also known by his adopted Japanese name Koizumi Yakumo, was a Greek born Irish writer who later adopted Japanese nationality and is perhaps best known for his collections of Japanese legends and ghost stories, such as Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things. Incidentally Hearn translated Pierre Loti (mentioned earlier) and considered him an influence on his own writing.
Some contemporary film makers that I also consider to be ‘Tropical Gothic’ are Lav Diaz, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Pedro Costa, Khavn De La Cruz and Kaneto Shindo. These names, perhaps not widely known, can easily be found on-line. My own videos are influenced by all of these directors in one way or another.
Lav Diaz is a Filipino independent film maker known for his very long, slow films. Apichatpong’s films combine the spirit world, mythology and politics of Thailand. Pedro Costa, although not strictly tropical being from Portugal, has for a number of years concerned himself with the Cabo Verdian (Cape Verde Islands) diaspora in Lisbon. Khavn De La Cruz is a flamboyant director who’s film Mondomanila is both bizarre and gothic. Both Onibaba and Kuroneko by Kaneto Shindo are two of my favourite Tropical Gothic films.
Three of my own ‘Tropical Gothic’ videos were shot in Hong Kong and on the island of Pulau Ubin, a small island between Singapore and Malaysia (see my web site for more information on those)
