Abstract
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.
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Editorial
- Introduction
- The Short Story, the New Weird, and the Literary Market
- Articles
- The Long and the Short of It: Approaching the (Un-)Representable in China Miéville’s “The Tain” (2002) and “The Condition of New Death” (2014)
- Descriptive Economy in the New Weird Short Story: China Miéville’s “The Condition of New Death”
- Mean Streets: Tracking the Dispositives of Address(es) with China Miéville’s “Reports of Certain Events in London”
- Character and Perspective in Cosmic Horror: Lovecraft and Kiernan
- Book Reviews
- Stefan Schubert: Narrative Instability: Destabilizing Identities, Realities, and Textualities in Contemporary Popular Culture
- Michael Weber: Die Chronologie von Emily Brontës Wuthering Heights. Literary and Cultural Studies, Theory and the (New) Media
- Müller, Timo: The African American Sonnet: A Literary History
- Books Received
- Books Received
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Editorial
- Introduction
- The Short Story, the New Weird, and the Literary Market
- Articles
- The Long and the Short of It: Approaching the (Un-)Representable in China Miéville’s “The Tain” (2002) and “The Condition of New Death” (2014)
- Descriptive Economy in the New Weird Short Story: China Miéville’s “The Condition of New Death”
- Mean Streets: Tracking the Dispositives of Address(es) with China Miéville’s “Reports of Certain Events in London”
- Character and Perspective in Cosmic Horror: Lovecraft and Kiernan
- Book Reviews
- Stefan Schubert: Narrative Instability: Destabilizing Identities, Realities, and Textualities in Contemporary Popular Culture
- Michael Weber: Die Chronologie von Emily Brontës Wuthering Heights. Literary and Cultural Studies, Theory and the (New) Media
- Müller, Timo: The African American Sonnet: A Literary History
- Books Received
- Books Received