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Disturbing the Ant-Hill: Misanthropy and Cosmic Indifference in Clark Ashton Smith’s Medieval Averoigne
- Author(s):
- James Smith (see profile)
- Date:
- 2018
- Group(s):
- Cultural Studies, History, Medieval Studies, Speculative and Science Fiction, The Lone Medievalist
- Subject(s):
- Medievalism, Science fiction, Horror, Fantasy literature, Twentieth century, Lovecraft, H. P. (Howard Phillips), 1890-1937, Poetry
- Item Type:
- Article
- Tag(s):
- Clark Ashton Smith, Weird Tales, Genre, 20th-century fantastic literature, Weird fiction, H.P. Lovecraft
- Permanent URL:
- http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/M6GP1R
- Abstract:
- Clark Ashton Smith—unlike the more famous H.P. Lovecraft—engaged with the medieval as a setting for his fiction. Lovecraft admired classical Roman civilization and the eighteenth century, but had little time for medieval themes. As Brantley Bryant has related, Lovecraft wrote contemptuously that the Middle Ages was a period that “snivel[ed] along after real civilization faded.”2 Smith, however, has a more complex and curious relationship with the medieval. It is not necessary to admire the Middle Ages to be preoccupied by it—Ernst Robert Curtius devoted a great deal of his scholarly life to studying a period that he considered derivative, its achievements reflections of a superior Classical tradition.3 Lovecraft actively vilified the medieval, but Smith basked in its literary poetics and textures while being indifferent to historicism. In this essay, I explore a medieval world created with a fleshed-out topography and fully-formed cultural context serving as a backdrop for bizarre and hideous themes of weird fiction in the face of human insignificance.
- Metadata:
- xml
- Published as:
- Journal article
- Status:
- Published
- Last Updated:
- 5 years ago
- License:
- Attribution
32_smith.pdf