Character and perspective in cosmic horror
- Despite their overt focus on inexplicable alien forces, cosmic horror stories are also determined by their human cast. Far from being merely fodder for horror, the characters significantly contribute to the generation of meaning, including that of the supernatural entity or phenomenon itself. The same holds for the narrators' (implicitly) political perspectives on the world of which they are part. Much of the perspective propounded in Lovecraft's cosmic horror stories partakes of myth, adopting in particular the latter's universal view and pronounced sidelining of humanity as a whole, which it intensifies to the point of horror. Appearances to the contrary notwithstanding, this universal perspective is consistent with the racism permeating and structuring Lovecraft's writing. Though eschewing racism and universalism, the cosmic horror of Kiernan's "Tidal Forces" negotiates literary reflections of colonialism from an unreflective white perspective.
Author details: | Heinrich Wilke |
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DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1515/zaa-2021-2038 |
ISSN: | 0044-2305 |
ISSN: | 2196-4726 |
Title of parent work (English): | Zeitschrift für Anglistik und Amerikanistik : a quarterly of language, literature and cultur |
Subtitle (English): | Lovecraft and Kiernan |
Publisher: | De Gruyter |
Place of publishing: | Berlin |
Publication type: | Article |
Language: | English |
Date of first publication: | 2021/06/14 |
Publication year: | 2021 |
Release date: | 2022/11/07 |
Tag: | Caitlin R. Kiernan; H. P. Lovecraft; cosmic horror; fiction; race and whiteness |
Volume: | 69 |
Issue: | 2 |
Number of pages: | 18 |
First page: | 173 |
Last Page: | 190 |
Organizational units: | Philosophische Fakultät / Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik |
DDC classification: | 8 Literatur / 82 Englische, altenglische Literaturen / 820 Englische, altenglische Literaturen |
Peer review: | Referiert |