Abstract

Religion suffuses H.P. Lovecraft’s (1890–1937) short stories—the most famous of which, “The Call of Cthulhu,” has led to a literary subculture and a shared mythos employed by Lovecraft’s successors. Despite this presence of religion in Lovecraft’s work, scholars of religion have paid relatively little attention to Lovecraft and the Cthulhu mythos, with a few notable exceptions. This article offers a close analysis of millennialism within Lovecraft’s thought, especially as expressed in three of his “Cthulhu mythos” stories: “The Call of Cthulhu,” “The Dunwich Horror,” and “The Shadow over Innsmouth.” This article considers Lovecraft’s formative experiences and non-fiction writings so as to contextualize his approach and millennial outlook. Tied to his nativist views of social decline, I argue that Lovecraft expresses in his fiction a peculiar form of millennialism, “anti-millennialism,” which entails the reversal of traditional millennialism, offering no hope in a collective salvation, but rather expectation that the imminent future would bring only decline.

Highlights

  • Nearly one hundred published authors have adopted the “Cthulhu mythos” and written stories set in Lovecraft’s world—many of which share this same cluster of themes of gods, demons, cults, and sacred texts (Jarocha-Ernst 1999)

  • Rather than embrace political or social movements in sympathy with his nativism, deep conservatism, and nihilism, Lovecraft turned to fiction as a means of conveying the sense of social and cultural collapse that he so acutely felt, which combined with his life experiences of facing the madness and death of his parents, his own creeping sense of awe and wonder, and the darkness of his ever-haunting night-gaunts

  • Turning from the author to the narratives, one finds the presence of the same millennialism to which Lovecraft alluded in his letters and essays

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Summary

Introduction

Nearly one hundred published authors have adopted the “Cthulhu mythos” and written stories set in Lovecraft’s world—many of which share this same cluster of themes of gods, demons, cults, and sacred texts (Jarocha-Ernst 1999) Despite this presence of religion in Lovecraft’s work, scholars of religion have paid relatively little attention to Lovecraft and the Cthulhu mythos, with a few notable exceptions. Literature specialists turn to Lovecraft with increasing frequency, as demonstrated by two recent anthologies dedicated to Lovecraft’s texts, antecedents, influences, and legacies (Sederholm and Weinstock 2016; Moreland 2018a; see Simmons 2013a) Few of those scholars pay much attention to religion. This article offers a close analysis of Lovecraft’s millennialism, especially as expressed in three of his “Cthulhu mythos” stories

Lovecraft’s Background
Millennialism in Lovecraft’s Narratives
The Dunwich Horror
Conclusions

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