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“Age of Lovecraft”? Anthropocene Monsters in (New) Weird Narrative
Full text linkThis paper considers whether the twenty-first-century resurgence of H. P. Lovecraft and weird fiction can be read as a conceptual parallel to the Anthropocene epoch, taking Carl H. Sederholm and Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock’s The Age of Lovecraft as a starting-point. The assumption is that the two ‘ages’ are historically and thematically linked through the ‘monsters’ that inhabit them; monsters that include—but are not limited to—extensions, reproductions, and evolutions of Lovecraft’s writings. Preoccupied with environmental issues such as global climate change, the twenty-first-century imaginary has conjured monsters that appear to have much in common with early twentieth-century cosmic horror stories. Considering the renewed interest in Lovecraft and the weird, such developments raise the question: What can (weird) monsters tell us about the Anthropocene moment? This paper maps the ‘monstrous’ in the discourses emerging from the Anthropocene epoch and ‘The Age of Lovecraft’ by considering (new) weird narratives from contemporary literature, graphic novels, film, TV, and video games. Mindful of on-going discussions within ecocriticism, philosophy, and critical theory, the paper discusses a handful of unconventional texts to investigate the potential of the weird for expressing Anthropocene anxieties and for approaching nonhuman realities from new angles.This paper considers whether the twenty-first-century resurgence of H. P. Lovecraft and weird fiction can be read as a conceptual parallel to the Anthropocene epoch, taking Carl H. Sederholm and Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock’s The Age of Lovecraft as a starting-point. The assumption is that the two ‘ages’ are historically and thematically linked through the ‘monsters’ that inhabit them; monsters that include—but are not limited to—extensions, reproductions, and evolutions of Lovecraft’s writings. Preoccupied with environmental issues such as global climate change, the twenty-first-century imaginary has conjured monsters that appear to have much in common with early twentieth-century cosmic horror stories. Considering the renewed interest in Lovecraft and the weird, such developments raise the question: What can (weird) monsters tell us about the Anthropocene moment? This paper maps the ‘monstrous’ in the discourses emerging from the Anthropocene epoch and ‘The Age of Lovecraft’ by considering (new) weird narratives from contemporary literature, graphic novels, film, TV, and video games. Mindful of on-going discussions within ecocriticism, philosophy, and critical theory, the paper discusses a handful of unconventional texts to investigate the potential of the weird for expressing Anthropocene anxieties and for approaching nonhuman realities from new angles.This paper considers whether the twenty-first-century resurgence of H. P. Lovecraft and weird fiction can be read as a conceptual parallel to the Anthropocene epoch, taking Carl H. Sederholm and Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock’s The Age of Lovecraft as a starting-point. The assumption is that the two ‘ages’ are historically and thematically linked through the ‘monsters’ that inhabit them; monsters that include—but are not limited to—extensions, reproductions, and evolutions of Lovecraft’s writings. Preoccupied with environmental issues such as global climate change, the twenty-first-century imaginary has conjured monsters that appear to have much in common with early twentieth-century cosmic horror stories. Considering the renewed interest in Lovecraft and the weird, such developments raise the question: What can (weird) monsters tell us about the Anthropocene moment? This paper maps the ‘monstrous’ in the discourses emerging from the Anthropocene epoch and ‘The Age of Lovecraft’ by considering (new) weird narratives from contemporary literature, graphic novels, film, TV, and video games. Mindful of on-going discussions within ecocriticism, philosophy, and critical theory, the paper discusses a handful of unconventional texts to investigate the potential of the weird for expressing Anthropocene anxieties and for approaching nonhuman realities from new angles
Hobbits, ents, and dæmons : ecocritical thought embodied in the fantastic
Full text linkThis paper investigates the occurrence of ecocritical thought in two canonical fantasy epics, The Lord of The Rings (1954–1955) by J. R. R. Tolkien and His Dark Materials (1995–2000) by Philip Pullman. Using current ecocritical theory as well as writers and critics of speculative fiction to study the primary works from a marginalized angle, this paper argues that fantasy fiction, more than other literary genres, has an intrinsic exploratory potential for ecocritical ideas because the strong immersive aspect of the genre entices the reader to open up for a less anthropocentric view of the world. If this is investigated further, the narrow space for fantasy literature in literary criticism and academia may be broadened to include a more politically engaged discussion of fantasy than typically assumed
Weird fiction in a warming world : a reading strategy for the Anthropocene
No full textMy dissertation explores the ways in which weird fiction generates a reading strategy to examine the Anthropocene and its global environmental crises. Drawing on and contributing to the fields of weird scholarship, narrative theory, and ecocriticism, I discuss contemporary Anglophone weird fiction with ecological themes to argue that the weird is a critical lens through which reactions to and ethics concerning human-induced ecological disasters may be better understood. Contemporary weird fiction increasingly broaches topics such as ecology, global warming, petroculture, and pollution, and I therefore discuss how authors like Jeff VanderMeer, China Miéville, and Reza Negarestani use the weird mode in innovative ways not only to challenge the biopolitical status quo, but also to reinvent weird tropes and techniques. Conversely, Anthropocene topics like the ones mentioned above are increasingly referred to by critics, journalists, artists, and environmentalists in ways that recall weird imagery and tropes. I therefore argue that there are significant historical, thematic, and political links between the weird and the warming world, which I uncover and critique by viewing the weird as a reading strategy
'Just a surface' : anamorphic perspective and nonhuman narration in Jeff VanderMeer’s The Strange Bird
No full textThis chapter close-reads The Strange Bird by Jeff VanderMeer (The Strange Bird: A Borne Story. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2017) in light of ongoing discussions in ecocriticism, posthumanism, and narrative theory. I argue that the novella takes the point of view of the nonhuman without rendering the plot genre-formulaic and depoliticised on the one hand, and without succumbing to pure allegory on the other. Based on the assumption that weird narratives demonstrate an affinity for expressing ecological anxieties via nonhuman characters by challenging tensions between hierarchical binaries such as subject and object, self and other, I argue that The Strange Bird uses affordances of the weird mode to trouble (under)current notions of subjectivity and agency, specifically by experimenting with nonhuman narration, affect, and a form of narrativised anamorphic projection
The weird and the meta in Jeff VanderMeer's Dead Astronauts
No full textOriginating in the works of early twentieth-century authors such as H. P. Lovecraft and Algernon Blackwood, weird fiction is experiencing a renaissance in contemporary literature. Several scholars have presented this literary mode as uniquely suited to speak to the anxieties generated by the current ecological crisis. In this essay, we examine Jeff VanderMeer's Dead Astronauts (2019) as part of a wave of recent works that mark a sharp departure from the immersive strategies with which weird fiction is typically associated. We argue that this encounter between the weird and the "meta" is particularly effective in bringing out the strange entanglement of human societies and the nonhuman world in times of climate crisis, serving as a powerful model for future iterations of the weird
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