The Gothic Tradition in H.P. Lovecraft: An Analysis of “The Call of Cthulhu” (original) (raw)
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Bachelor's thesis, 2023
This work analyses the influence of the works of H.P. Lovecraft on contemporary horror fiction by comparing two of his short stories – “Call of Cthulhu” and “The Dreams in The Witch-House” and Archive 81 directed by Rebecca Sonnenshine. Chapter 1 outlines the history of the horror genre from the early gothic to the horror fiction inspired by the spiritualist revival of the late nineteenth century. The chapter also characterises the genre of weird fiction, its fathers, and their influence on the works of H.P. Lovecraft. Chapter 2 analyses the elements of Lovecraftian aesthetic in the “The Call of Cthulhu” and “The Dreams in the Witch-House” by H.P. Lovecraft. The first subchapter focuses the author’s philosophy of cosmicism and the way it is reflected in the two stories. The second subchapter addresses the portrayal of occultism in “The Call of Cthulhu” and “The Dreams in the Witch-House.” Chapter 3 analyses how the elements of Lovecraft’s cosmicism and his portrayal of the occult find their direct parallel in Archive 81 showing that the H.P. Lovecraft continues to influence modern works of horror genre.
A Gothic Sinthome? The Case of H. P. Lovecraft
This paper explores the possibilities of the work of the later Lacan for providing an analysis of the Gothic text. It focuses particularly on the work of the American writer H. P. Lovecraft, a relatively unknown and little-regarded figure of early 20th century gothic / horror fiction. I draw on his texts to exemplify Lacan’s revision of the symptom to the new form of the ‘sinthome’, a construction that allows the individual to supplement or repair the fundamental rupture at the basis of subjectivity. I argue that Lovecraft’s texts produce a particular form of Gothic sinthome, which allows him to gain a position as a subject while also creating a new singular form of horror fiction. His new cosmic non-supernatural horror fiction pushes at the limits of the gothic. This fiction is taken up by the contemporary French writer Michel Houellebecq to produce a post-gothic fiction in which the effect of horror is located in the inconsistency of the social bond.
New Critical Essays on H.P. Lovecraft
2013
Amen 9.4 The Justice League face Starro the Conqueror 9.5 Claustrophobia and psychological breakdown 9.6 Alberto Breccia's Cthulhu, from Los mitos de Cthulhu 9.7 The eerie mood of Lovecraft's stories is captured 9.8 For whom the bell bongs? 9.9 A telepathic attack from beyond the stars? 9.10 Shattered perspectives and contact with the unrepresentable 9.11 Hellboy by Mike Mignola 9.12 Cthulhu Tales and The Strange Adventures of H. P. Lovecraft 9.13 At the Mountains of Madness by Ian Culbard 9.14 "The Call of Cthulhu" by Ian Edginton and D'Israeli 9.15 Neonomicon by Alan Moore and Jacen Burrows This page intentionally left blank Works Cited
'A Literature of Cosmic Fear': An Introduction to H.P. Lovecraft
Wordsworth Editions Blog, 2022
A blasted heath where nothing grows yet dead trees seem strangely animated; an abandoned well that glows with a colour that has no name; a disastrous expedition to Antarctica written by a survivor only to warn others to stay away; cathedral-sized buildings from before the dawn of mankind where the geometry doesn’t make sense; a pulp writer found dead at his desk, a look of frozen horror on his face; sailors discover a drowned city and half a world away an artist begins to sculpt a hideous figure while an architect goes mad; something not quite human breaks into an academic library to steal an unholy book; human brains are removed and placed in cannisters for transport to other worlds; the dead scream and a doctor vanishes; alien gods, ancient and terrible, dream beneath the sea… Enter, if you dare, the weird world of H.P. Lovecraft. If you know Lovecraft’s fiction, there’s nothing you need from me. In fact, you almost certainly know it better than I do. Devotees of Lovecraft tend to be as encyclopaedic as he was, and several academics have forged successful careers out of interpreting his work, life, and letters. His ‘Cthulhu Mythos’ is pored over like a religious text, with references to it in Aleister Crowley’s Book of the Law and The Satanic Rituals by Anton LaVey and Michael A. Aquino. There are at least half a dozen books in print claiming to be the real Necronomicon of the ‘Mad Arab’ alchemist and necromancer Abdul Alhazred – another of Lovecraft’s inventions. Lovecraft’s influence over 20th century horror, supernatural and science fiction is vast, with symbols from his work spread out across popular culture, from death metal and Alan Moore’s League of Extraordinary Gentlemen to Scooby Doo and Gravity Falls. There are currently over 30 films based on his stories, most notably the cult Re-Animator series directed by Stuart Gordon and Brian Yuzna (who also adapted Lovecraft’s 1920 story ‘From Beyond’), and many more that take their inspiration from him, such as Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead saga. In gothic literature, Lovecraft is the equal of Poe, to whom, he wrote, ‘we owe the modern horror-story in its final and perfected state’; he has no other peer. And their collective influence can be felt in the crimson line of great American horror writing that runs from Robert Bloch (who was a friend of Lovecraft’s), through Richard Matheson, to Stephen King. In the Geek Kingdom, if you want to suss out a so-called ‘horror expert’, check out what they have to say about H.P. Lovecraft...
The Portrayal of Occultism in “The Call of Cthulhu” (1928) by H.P. Lovecraft
k@ta, 2021
H.P. Lovecraft crafted an intricate mythos which initially did not find success until after his death, and his works, most notably “The Call of Cthulhu” (1928), were regarded to be a landmark towards the relevancy of occultism both in the field of literature and religious belief. The short story was regarded to be the staple of “cosmic horror” which Lovecraft applied to almost all of his stories. The paper analyze how “The Call of Cthulhu” influenced the belief of modern occultism, which can be inferred from the literary elements in the story. Further analysis will also identify how Lovecraft portrayed the subgenre “cosmic horror” to enhance the elements of occultism within the short story. In relation to the previous elements, the paper examine how a particular cult, Typhonian Order, was influenced by the elements of occultism used in the story.
Cthulhu Mythos: History of H.P. Lovecraft’s Monstrous Presence in Popular Culture
Acta Universitatis Wratislaviensis. Literatura i Kultura Popularna, 2024
The aim of this paper is to analyse various forms of the so-called Cthulhu Mythos and describe specifi c shifts in reception and refl exion of H.P. Lovecraft's legacy in contemporary culture. The opening part of the paper introduces H.P. Lovecraft as the author of weird fi ction, cosmic horror and the philosophy of cosmicism, and corrects common misconceptions regarding the Cthulhu Mythos. Then, the semiotic versioning of three versions of the Cthulhu Mythos is explained and all three versions are further analysed. Version 1.0 of the Mythos includes Lovecraft's legacy, works of the authors from the Lovecraft Circle, but also August Derleth's interpretations of cosmic horror and works of the next generation of authors that emerged after Lovecraft's death or were discovered and guided by Derleth. It's a complex set of terminology, ideas, philosophies, plot devices and narratological specifi cations that is, as is further explained, wrongly interpreted as a fi ctional mythology. Version 2.0 includes all the works created under the label of 'Lovecraftian' or 'cosmic' horror, all transmedia adaptations, infl uences, and pop cultural additions where the infl uence of the original Mythos can be traced and is either explicitly admitted or just implied. Finally, Cthulhu Mythos 3.0 is a version of the Mythos that acknowledges the existence of the previous versions, yet approaches them through a specifi c self-refl ective, self-critical lens and is more focused on intertextual play and metacommentaries on these previous versions than on expanding them.
H. P. LOVECRAFT ON SCREEN, A CHALLENGE FOR FILMMAKERS (ALLUSIONS, TRANSPOSITIONS, REWRITINGS
This article first delineates the reasons why it is difficult to adapt Lovecraft's fiction to the screen. It then analyses different types of adaptation, either straight or more loose, focusing in particular on the work of Stuart Gordon, one of the main adapters of Lovecraft with films ranging from parody (Herbert West Reanimator) to more serious adaptations which however depart in various ways (especially adding women characters and sex) from their source text (Dagon, The Dreams in the Witch House). Andrew Leman's The Call of Cthulhu, a pastiche of early silent films, provides a good example of straight adaptation. It also proves rewarding to compare two different retellings of the same novel, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, by two directors, Roger Corman (The Haunted Palace) and Dan O'Bannon (The Resurrected). Corman tends to associate Poesque Gothic and Lovecraft while O'Bannon uses film noir conventions, also setting the story in a contemporary context. Lastly this article analyses the presence of Lovecraftian themes and motifs in films that are not adaptations like Alien or the Quatermass trilogy. A case in point is John Carpenter's apocalyptic trilogy that provides a convincing re-appropriation of Lovecraft's fictional universe. 56 resuMen En primer lugar, este artículo describe las razones que hacen difícil adaptar la ficción de Lovecraft a la pantalla. A continuación, se analizan diferentes tipos de adaptación, ya sea estricta o más o menos libre, centrándose en particular en el trabajo de Stuart Gordon, uno de los principales adaptadores de Lovecraft con películas que van desde la parodia (Herbert West Reanimator) hasta versiones más serias, que, sin embargo, toman diversas vías (en especial, agregando personajes femeninos y sexo) a partir de su texto fuente (Dagon, The Dreams in the Witch House). The Call of Cthulhu, de Andrew Leman, un pastiche de las primeras películas mudas, es un buen ejemplo de adaptación estricta. También resulta gratificante comparar las diferentes versiones de la novela El caso de Charles Dexter Ward que realizaron dos directores, Roger Corman (The Haunted Palace) y Dan O'Bannon (The Resurrected). Así, mientras Corman combina la dimensión gótica de Poe con Lovecraft, por su parte, O'Bannon usa las convenciones del cine negro y sitúa la historia en un contexto contemporáneo. Finalmente, este artículo analiza la presencia de temas y motivos de Lovecraft en películas que no son adaptaciones, como ocurre en Alien o en la trilogía de Quatermass. Un ejemplo de ello es la trilogía apocalíptica de John Carpenter, que ofrece una reapropiación convincente del universo ficticio de Lovecraft.
Peer Reviewed Proceedings of the 7th Annual Conference Popular Culture Association of Australia and New Zealand (PopCAANZ), Sydney, 29 June – 1 July, 2016, pp. 79-87. ISBN: 978-0-473-38284-1. © 2016 This paper surveys select aspects of Joseph Campbell’s monomyth, a model developed in his now-iconic work The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949) and compares it with the weird fiction of author H.P. Lovecraft’s ‘Cthulhu Mythos’. Throughout, it is argued that Lovecraft’s writing shares superficial similarities with the monomyth, ostensibly or actually mirroring certain stages, yet Lovecraft’s work is ultimately subversive of this model. The only triumph in Lovecraft’s work is the continuance of the loathsome entities encountered within his stories. It is argued that Lovecraft’s portrayal of the monstrous can be viewed as an outworking of what Campbell terms ‘horrendous Divine Comedy’. Accounting for this type of storytelling, Lovecraft’s recurrent portrayals of annihilation, the monstrous and cosmic horror could be illustrative of the metanarratives of his own life. In this sense they reflect his experiences and evolving beliefs in early-twentieth century North America. Despite the personalized anxieties of these works, they have endured, continuing to appeal to present-day audiences.