The Horror of Lovecraft: Reclaiming the Legacy of the Weird
Open Access
Author:
Miller, Sydney
Area of Honors:
English
Degree:
Bachelor of Arts
Document Type:
Thesis
Thesis Supervisors:
Christian P Haines, Thesis Supervisor Claire Mary Colebrook, Thesis Honors Advisor
Keywords:
Lovecraft Horror Weird Fiction Supernatural Horror Contemporary Literature
Abstract:
H.P. Lovecraft’s work has had a resurgence of popularity in the twenty-first century. Along with the positive reaction and attention to the aspects of Lovecraft that are so loved—his tactic of weird, fictional horror, his Cthulhu mythos, etc.—there has been an increased focus on many of the underlying themes and motifs representative of his fear of racial otherness which facilitates racism and xenophobia within his stories. In this thesis, I examine the aspects of Lovecraft’s horror to which readers and writers are fascinated by and attracted. I explore how these racist themes and motifs are employed as well as their effect on Lovecraft’s genre. Finally, I analyze the way that modern authors have sought out to reclaim the work of Lovecraft by extracting and preserving his horror and mythos while employing new points of view from characters of minorities that negate Lovecraft’s most hateful themes.
