‘ … Miles of the rustling secret corn’: nature, cosmic and autonomy in American cosmic horror literature

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the autonomy of Nature in American cosmic horror literature. We have divided the American cosmic horror canon into two parts: the Lovecraftian and the post-millennial. The Lovecraftian phase, prefaced by the texts of Lovecraft himself, posits Nature as a corruptible and subservient entity, subdued by the alien cosmic and redeemed only by a rationalist agent/outsider, focusing on the late-twentieth century texts by Stephen King, T. E. D. Klein and Robert R. McCammon. In the post-millennial phase, rather than serving the cosmic, Nature becomes the cosmic, transcending the moulds of rationality and comprehension, becoming inscrutable and ‘agential’ in the process. Our case studies will include the works of Thomas Ligotti, Michael Wehunt, T. E. Grau and John Langan. While discerning Nature’s autonomy, we will also discuss how a ‘rational’ Nature falls within the ambit of anthropocentrism, whereas an ‘irrational’ Nature, often mistaken as misanthropic, adopts absolute indifference towards the anthropos.