Greetings
Everyone!
My new book,
Horror as Racism in H. P. Lovecraft: White Fragility in the Weird Tales,
was recently published by Bloomsbury, the foremost academic publisher in the
United States and in the United Kingdom!
I hope that all of you will pick up a copy!
Lovecraft
makes extensive use of racist images in both his early and later works. These images are drawn from Lovecraft’s
observations of members of the non-white race that he most despised and
abhorred, African Americans, especially as he observed them in the slums
of his hometown Providence, Rhode Island and at close quarters during his brief
residence in the Red Hook district of New York.
Lovecraft
focuses on the simian and ape-like characteristics that he insisted on seeing
in the faces and forms of the locals and
then simply projects these onto his monsters.
He does this in a very conscious and deliberate manner in order to
enhance the horror and the repugnance that these creatures inspire in the minds
of his readers (or at least, so Lovecraft presumed).
Check out my
book for analysis of how Lovecraft uses these images creatively in some of his
most popular tales: “Arthur Jermyn,” “Herbert West—Reanimator,” and “The Rats
in the Walls”!
https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/horror-as-racism-in-h-p-lovecraft-9798765107706/
JLS
No comments:
Post a Comment