• Just like Henry James (Except with Cannibalism): The International Weird in H. P. Lovecraft's ‘The Rats in the Walls’

    Author(s):
    Dennis Wise (see profile)
    Date:
    2021
    Subject(s):
    Lovecraft, H. P. (Howard Phillips), 1890-1937, Gothic literature, Horror
    Item Type:
    Article
    Tag(s):
    atavism, cosmic indifferntism, H.P. Lovecraft, Weird fiction
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/9efe-me69
    Abstract:
    The early short story ‘The Rats in the Walls’ (1924) is recognized as the best of H. P. Lovecraft’s fiction prior to ‘The Call of Cthulhu’, but this story is also non-cosmic and therefore (for some) not truly ‘Lovecraftian’. In conjunction with dense prose and seemingly throwaway references, this view has made ‘Rats’ arguably the most inadequately read of Lovecraft’s major works. This article proposes that we read ‘Rats’, Lovecraft’s first tale within an unofficial ‘witch cult’ trilogy, as a story of the path not taken in modern weird fiction. Using Henry James’s ‘The Jolly Corner’ (1908) as a companion piece, I argue that the international weird forms a major component of Lovecraft’s text. Far from portraying horrors merely personal in scope, Lovecraft uses the Delapore family and their geographical dislocations between two distinct nation-states, America and England, to signal what he sees as the historical rise and fall – or evolution and de-evolution – of culture itself.
    Metadata:
    xml
    Published as:
    Journal article     Show details
    Pub. DOI:
    10.3366/gothic.2021.0080
    Publisher:
    Edinburgh University Press
    Pub. Date:
    2021-3-10
    Journal:
    Gothic Studies
    Volume:
    23
    Issue:
    1
    Page Range:
    96 - 110
    ISSN:
    1362-7937,2050-456X
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    2 years ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved

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