The last ten years have witnessed a renewed interest in H.P. Lovecraft in academic and scholarly circles. New Critical Essays on H.P. Lovecraft seeks to offer an expansive and considered account of a fascinating yet challenging writer; both popular and critically valid but also problematic in terms of his depictions of race, gender and class.

Lovecraft in the 21st Century assembles reflections from a wide range of perspectives on the significance of Lovecraft’s influence in contemporary times. Building on a focus centered on the Anthropocene, adaptation, and visual media, the chapters in this collection focus on the following topics: Adaptation of Lovecraft’s legacy in theater, television, film, graphic narratives, video games and game artwork The connection between the writer’s legacy and his life Reading Lovecraft in light of contemporary criticism about capitalism, the posthuman, and the Anthropocene How contemporary authors have worked through the implicit racial and sexual politics in Lovecraft’s fiction Reading Lovecraft’s fiction in light of contemporary approaches to gender and sexuality

Medial Afterlives of H.P. Lovecraft brings together essays on the theory and practice of adapting H.P. Lovecraft’s fiction and the Lovecraftian. It draws on recent adaptation theory as well as broader discourses around media affordances to give an overview over the presence of Lovecraft in contemporary media as well as the importance of contemporary media in shaping what we take Lovecraft’s legacy to be. Discussing a wide array of medial forms, from film and TV to comics, podcasts, and video and board games, and bringing together an international group of scholars, the volume analyzes individual instances of adaptation as well as the larger concern of what it is possible to learn about adaptation from the example of H.P. Lovecraft, and how we construct Lovecraft and the Lovecraftian today in adaptation. Medial Afterlives of H.P. Lovecraft is focused on an academic audience, but it will nonetheless hold interest for all readers interested in Lovecraft today.

Co-winner, Ray & Pat Browne Award for Best Edited Collection in Popular Culture and American Culture Howard Phillips Lovecraft, the American author of “weird tales” who died in 1937 impoverished and relatively unknown, has become a twenty-first-century star, cropping up in places both anticipated and unexpected. Authors, filmmakers, and shapers of popular culture like Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, and Guillermo del Toro acknowledge his influence; his fiction is key to the work of posthuman philosophers and cultural critics such as Graham Harman and Eugene Thacker; and Lovecraft’s creations have achieved unprecedented cultural ubiquity, even showing up on the animated program South Park. The Age of Lovecraft is the first sustained analysis of Lovecraft in relation to twenty-first-century critical theory and culture, delving into troubling aspects of his thought and writings. With contributions from scholars including Gothic expert David Punter, historian W. Scott Poole, musicologist Isabella van Elferen, and philosopher of the posthuman Patricia MacCormack, this wide-ranging volume brings together thinkers from an array of disciplines to consider Lovecraft’s contemporary cultural presence and its implications. Bookended by a preface from horror fiction luminary Ramsey Campbell and an extended interview with the central author of the New Weird, China Miéville, the collection addresses the question of “why Lovecraft, why now?” through a variety of approaches and angles. A must for scholars, students, and theoretically inclined readers interested in Lovecraft, popular culture, and intellectual trends, The Age of Lovecraft offers the most thorough examination of Lovecraft’s place in contemporary philosophy and critical theory to date as it seeks to shed light on the larger phenomenon of the dominance of weird fiction in the twenty-first century. Contributors: Jessica George; Brian Johnson, Carleton U; James Kneale, U College London; Patricia MacCormack, Anglia Ruskin U, Cambridge; Jed Mayer, SUNY New Paltz; China Miéville, Warwick U; W. Scott Poole, College of Charleston; David Punter, U of Bristol; David Simmons, Northampton U; Isabella van Elferen, Kingston U London.

Finalist for the HWA’s Bram Stoker Award for Best Anthology Named one of the Best Books of the Year by Slate and the San Francisco Chronicle From across strange aeons comes the long-awaited annotated edition of “the twentieth century’s greatest practitioner of the classic horror tale” (Stephen King). "With an increasing distance from the twentieth century…the New England poet, author, essayist, and stunningly profuse epistolary Howard Phillips Lovecraft is beginning to emerge as one of that tumultuous period’s most critically fascinating and yet enigmatic figures," writes Alan Moore in his introduction to The New Annotated H. P. Lovecraft. Despite this nearly unprecedented posthumous trajectory, at the time of his death at the age of forty-six, Lovecraft's work had appeared only in dime-store magazines, ignored by the public and maligned by critics. Now well over a century after his birth, Lovecraft is increasingly being recognized as the foundation for American horror and science fiction, the source of "incalculable influence on succeeding generations of writers of horror fiction" (Joyce Carol Oates). In this volume, Leslie S. Klinger reanimates Lovecraft with clarity and historical insight, charting the rise of the erstwhile pulp writer, whose rediscovery and reclamation into the literary canon can be compared only to that of Poe or Melville. Weaving together a broad base of existing scholarship with his own original insights, Klinger appends Lovecraft's uncanny oeuvre and Kafkaesque life story in a way that provides context and unlocks many of the secrets of his often cryptic body of work. Over the course of his career, Lovecraft—"the Copernicus of the horror story" (Fritz Leiber)—made a marked departure from the gothic style of his predecessors that focused mostly on ghosts, ghouls, and witches, instead crafting a vast mythos in which humanity is but a blissfully unaware speck in a cosmos shared by vast and ancient alien beings. One of the progenitors of "weird fiction," Lovecraft wrote stories suggesting that we share not just our reality but our planet, and even a common ancestry, with unspeakable, godlike creatures just one accidental revelation away from emerging from their epoch of hibernation and extinguishing both our individual sanity and entire civilization. Following his best-selling The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes, Leslie S. Klinger collects here twenty-two of Lovecraft's best, most chilling "Arkham" tales, including "The Call of Cthulhu," At the Mountains of Madness, "The Whisperer in Darkness," "The Shadow Over Innsmouth," "The Colour Out of Space," and others. With nearly 300 illustrations, including full-color reproductions of the original artwork and covers from Weird Tales and Astounding Stories, and more than 1,000 annotations, this volume illuminates every dimension of H. P. Lovecraft and stirs the Great Old Ones in their millennia of sleep.

H.P. Lovecraft, one of the twentieth century’s most important writers in the genre of horror fiction, famously referred to Edgar Allan Poe as both his “model” and his “God of Fiction.” While scholars and readers of Poe’s and Lovecraft’s work have long recognized the connection between these authors, this collection of essays is the first in-depth study to explore the complex literary relationship between Lovecraft and Poe from a variety of critical perspectives. Of the thirteen essays included in this book, some consider how Poe’s work influenced Lovecraft in important ways. Other essays explore how Lovecraft’s fictional, critical, and poetic reception of Poe irrevocably changed how Poe’s work has been understood by subsequent generations of readers and interpreters. Addressing a variety of topics ranging from the psychology of influence to racial and sexual politics, the essays in this book also consider how Lovecraft’s interpretations of Poe have informed later adaptations of both writers’ works in films by Roger Corman and fiction by Stephen King, Thomas Ligotti, and Caitlin R. Kiernan. This collection is an indispensable resource not only for those who are interested in Poe’s and Lovecraft’s work specifically, but also for readers who wish to learn more about the modern history and evolution of Gothic, horror, and weird fiction.

"Being crazy" is generally a negative characterization today, yet many celebrated artists, leaders, and successful individuals have achieved greatness despite suffering from mental illness. This book explores the many different representations of mental illness that exist—and sometimes persist—in both traditional and new media across eras. Mental health professionals and advocates typically point a finger at pop culture for sensationalizing and stigmatizing mental illness, perpetuating stereotypes, and capitalizing on the increased anxiety that invariably follows mass shootings at schools, military bases, or workplaces; on public transportation; or at large public gatherings. While drugs or street gangs were once most often blamed for public violence, the upswing of psychotic perpetrators casts a harsher light on mental illness and commands media's attention. What aspects of popular culture could play a role in mental health across the nation? How accurate and influential are the various media representations of mental illness? Or are there unsung positive portrayals of mental illness? This standout work on the intersections of pop culture and mental illness brings informed perspectives and necessary context to the myriad topics within these important, timely, and controversial issues. Divided into five sections, the book covers movies; television; popular literature, encompassing novels, poetry, and memoirs; the visual arts, such as fine art, video games, comics, and graphic novels; and popular music, addressing lyrics and musicians' lives. Some of the essays reference multiple media, such as a filmic adaptation of a memoir or a video game adaptation of a story or characters that were originally in comics. With roughly 20 percent of U.S. citizens taking psychotropic prescriptions or carrying a psychiatric diagnosis, this timely topic is relevant to far more individuals than many people would admit.

From shambling zombies to Gothic ghosts, horror has entertained thrill-seeking readers for centuries. A versatile literary genre, it offers commentary on societal issues, fresh insight into the everyday and moral tales disguised in haunting tropes and grotesque acts, with many stories worthy of critical appraisal. This collection of new essays takes in a range of topics, focusing on historic works such as Ann Radcliffe's Gaston de Blondeville (1826) and modern novels including Max Brooks' World War Z. Other contributions examine weird fiction, Stephen King, Richard Laymon, Indigenous Australian monster mythology and horror in picture books for young children.

An urgent volume of essays engages the Gothic to advance important perspectives on our geological era What can the Gothic teach us about our current geological era? More than just spooky, moonlit castles and morbid graveyards, the Gothic represents a vibrant, emergent perspective on the Anthropocene. In this volume, more than a dozen scholars move beyond longstanding perspectives on the Anthropocene—such as science fiction and apocalyptic narratives—to show that the Gothic offers a unique (and dark) interpretation of events like climate change, diminished ecosystems, and mass extinction. Embracing pop cultural phenomena like True Detective, Jaws, and Twin Peaks, as well as topics from the New Weird and prehistoric shark fiction to ruin porn and the “monstroscene,” Dark Scenes from Damaged Earth demonstrates the continuing vitality of the Gothic while opening important new paths of inquiry. These essays map a genealogy of the Gothic while providing fresh perspectives on the ongoing climate chaos, the North/South divide, issues of racialization, dark ecology, questions surrounding environmental justice, and much more. Contributors: Fred Botting, Kingston U; Timothy Clark, U of Durham; Rebecca Duncan, Linnaeus U; Michael Fuchs, U of Oldenburg, Germany; Esthie Hugo, U of Warwick; Dawn Keetley, Lehigh U; Laura R. Kremmel, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology; Timothy Morton, Rice U; Barry Murnane, U of Oxford; Jennifer Schell, U of Alaska Fairbanks; Lisa M. Vetere, Monmouth U; Sara Wasson, Lancaster U; Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock, Central Michigan U.

Providing a new perspective on Lovecraft's life and work, Horror as Racism in H.P. Lovecraft focuses on the overlap between the writer's personal beliefs and the racist images and narratives in his speculative fiction. Building on recent debates about Lovecraft and drawing on the concept of "white fragility," John Steadman argues that the writer's fiction reflects his feelings of resentment and anger towards non-white persons and was used to advocate for his racist, xenophobic political beliefs – that western civilization was in decline and slavery was justifiable among "superior" civilizations. In making these claims, Lovecraft's tales pit humans against extra-terrestrial aliens, developing a terrifying, futuristic vision of the Earth as a plantation planet. The familiar image of Lovecraft as a reclusive, creative genius and mentor to young writer-friends is dismantled through close readings of his fiction and nonfiction – including correspondence, essays, and poetry – and examination of his early biography. This image is replaced by that of a cruel, callous, and, at times, psychotic man, a violently vitriolic racist and white supremacist who hated most of the non-white races. While some will dismiss the author outright and others will read his fiction but ignore the racism, Horror as Racism in H.P. Lovecraft takes a middle ground: acknowledging Lovecraft's personal history and heinous intentions, it helps readers navigate the author's disturbing biography while also getting a better sense of the stories, which remain significant within American science fiction.