MICHELLE ROCHE RODRÍGUEZ
Press
A selection of reviews, interviews, and profiles covering Michelle Roche Rodríguez’s work in cultural publications across Spain and Latin America.
Reviews
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«Una historia de vampiros en Venezuela»
Juan Ángel Juristo, ABC Cultural, March 20, 2020
A reading of Malasangre as a historical Gothic novel in which vampirism serves as a metaphor for political, economic, and social predation in Venezuela. The review also considers the relationships among desire, blood, power, and patriarchal society.
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«El fulgor de la sangre»
J. A. Masoliver Ródenas, Cultura/s, La Vanguardia, February 29, 2020
A review of Malasangre as a historical Gothic novel in which vampirism articulates a critique of dictatorial, ecclesiastical, and economic power. Masoliver Ródenas also highlights the novel’s defense of women’s autonomy and the contemporary relevance of its historical setting.
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Leer, June 2020
A review of the relationships among fantastic literature, authoritarianism, oil, gender, and sexuality in Malasangre.
Interviews with the Author
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“Michelle Roche Rodríguez: ‘Bodies that Hunger Can Also Aspire to Freedom’”
Claudia Cavallin, Latin American Literature Today, December 2022
Translated by Karen Wooley Martin
An interview about blood, the body, and hunger as images of power and freedom in Malasangre, addressing vampirism, oil extraction, Venezuelan militarism, and the protagonist’s pursuit of emancipation. [latinameri...etoday.org]
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«Entrevista a Michelle Roche Rodríguez»
Nelson Rivera, Papel Literario, El Nacional, March 29, 2020
An extended interview about the writing of Malasangre, its historical research, the Gothic tradition, gender, and power.
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«La literatura de género es víctima de los que se creen defensores del canon»
Babelia, El País, February 28, 2020
A brief interview about the literary canon, genre fiction, vampirism, and literary influences, published following the release of Malasangre.
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«Neo-Gothic: Why Magical Horror Has Invaded Trauma Narratives»
Noelia Ramírez, El País English, January 25, 2024
An international overview of contemporary Gothic writing as a way of addressing violence, trauma, and the subjugation of women. The article includes Michelle Roche Rodríguez among writers from Latin America, Spain, and the United States who draw on fear, the supernatural, and the body to explore the historical and social wounds of their respective territories.
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«¿Se han apoderado las narradoras del realismo gótico latinoamericano?»
Ariana Basciani Fernández, The Objective, December 31, 2020
An article about a generation of Latin American women writers who use the fantastic and the Gothic to address the body, social violence, and women’s experiences. The article devotes a section to Malasangre and examines vampirism as a metaphor for sexuality, misogyny, oil extraction, and military power.
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«Buenos tiempos para lo paranormal»
Laura Fernández, El País, February 15, 2020
An overview of a generation of Latin American women writers who incorporate the fantastic and the uncanny into narratives about violence, the body, and contemporary experience. The article includes Michelle Roche Rodríguez and Malasangre among works that move beyond the traditional boundaries of genre fiction.
Critical Perspectives
Selected Essays & Articles
A selection of essays, literary criticism, and cultural journalism written by the author on Venezuela, Latin American literature, gender, mythology, violence, and the narrative form. The linked articles are available in Spanish.
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Babelia, El País, July 11, 2026
An essay on the cultural construction of the malandro as a figure linking masculinity, violence, and institutional crisis in Venezuela. Through film, literature, popular music, and everyday language, the article examines how this figure moved from the social margins to become an allegory of the country’s democratic decline.
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«María Lionza: del mito de la diosa madre al culto de la violencia»
Revista Santiago, January 27, 2025
An essay on the transformations of the María Lionza myth, from a mother goddess associated with nature to popular spiritism and the Court of Malandros. The article examines the relationships among Venezuelan identity, religious syncretism, spirituality, social inequality, and violence.
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«El naufragio de Venezuela contado en inglés y castellano»
Babelia, El País, January 16, 2026
A critical survey of chronicles, reportage, and essays that have approached Venezuela’s collapse and the erosion of its democratic prospects from different perspectives. The article examines accounts by Venezuelan and international journalists of the decline of the political system established under Hugo Chávez and the deepening crisis under Nicolás Maduro.
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«Ansiosas reflexiones frente al “libro latinoamericano”»
Cuadernos Hispanoamericanos, December 1, 2025
An essay on Julio Cortázar’s idea of the “Latin American book” and the cultural and gender exclusions embedded in that construction. Through a discussion of Venezuelan literature, the article examines influence, tradition, and the intellectual responsibility of writing about a country from the perspective of a migrant writer.
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«Cuatro problemas de filogenia en la narrativa breve contemporánea»
Cuadernos Hispanoamericanos, May 1, 2022
An essay on the canon and the literary genealogies of contemporary short fiction in Spanish. Challenging the search for individual masters and exclusively male traditions, the article proposes a more diverse genealogy through the work of Ricardo Piglia, Roberto Bolaño, Cristina Fernández Cubas, and Clara Obligado, while examining formal experimentation, hybridity, and the transformation of the short-story collection.
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«Un pájaro todavía aletea en la literatura latinoamericana»
Revista Santiago, 2 de octubre de 2024
An essay on the continuing influence of José Donoso’s The Obscene Bird of Night on contemporary Latin American fiction. The article connects Donoso’s monstrous figures with works by Mariana Enriquez, Guadalupe Nettel, María Fernanda Ampuero, and Lina Meruane, as well as with Malasangre, to examine the body, marginality, and monstrosity as constructions of power.
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«Dos pequeños ensayos sobre la novela corta: “Un problema de onomástica” y “La ejemplar brevedad”»
Cuadernos Hispanoamericanos, no. 886, June 2024
Two essays on the novella, its terminology, and the relationship between brevity and narrative form. Published as part of a special section devoted to short novels, the essays consider the limits and possibilities of a genre situated between the short story and the novel.
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«Taller de escritura. El surgimiento del personaje como momento fundacional de la novela»
Cuadernos Hispanoamericanos, January 1, 2025
An essay on the emergence of character as the starting point of the narrative process and on the transformation of an initial image into a novel. Drawing on the writing of Malasangre and other literary projects, the article examines the relationships among character, research, Venezuelan history and culture, fantastic literature, and the development of plot.