A hovering ghost from the future: the posthuman gothic landscape of Bangalore in Appupen’s ‘Bangaloids’

The academic discussion surrounding the Gothic is dominated by British and American traditions. The globalgothic, concerned with gothic discourses outside the canonical traditions, is a developing arena, and gothic voices from other parts of the globe need to be studied. Appupen's 'Bangaloids' is a dystopian short story that represents the gothic voice from India. Part of Bangalore: A Graphic Novel (2017), a city-centric graphic storytelling initiative, the story responds to the social trauma caused by fast-paced urbanism and questions some of the deepest fears about the human condition. This paper argues that 'Bangaloids' presents Bangalore's fictitious posthuman gothic landscape to make readers contemplate a dystopian future. It analyses the gothic matrix of the metropolis; theories on modern gothic are used to comprehend Bangalore's gothic character. It also studies the formal qualities of the graphic medium that highlight the gothic themes and facilitate storytelling.