In this essay, reader-response theory is used to explore the application of history in "The Rats in the Walls" and "At the Mountains of Madness" by H.P. Lovecraft.Utilizing the concepts of the informed reader and temporal reading, this essay concludes that Lovecraft used history in two distinct ways. Firstly, history is used as a means to build immersion, ambience, and explore the individual's place in history by drawing upon English cultural layers. Secondly, it functions to reflect on human history in relation to human existence and geological history by turning the history of Earth into the history of an alien species. Furthermore, this essay concludes that Lovecraft and history could be valuble assets to an EFL classroom by relating the findings to theory on reader-response in education. Firstly, it enables students to reflect on social issues in the past and the present by looking at Lovecraft's historical settings, his antiquated prose and the casual racism he exhibits in his texts. Secondly, Lovecraft's apparent obsession with his historical identity and ancestry provides an opening for the students to contemplate their own sense of identity as it relates to culture and history. The underlying idea being that the best way to reveal Lovecraft's use of history is to consider what the individual reader brings to the reading experience.

The research examines the relationship between the Sublime, the written works of H. P. Lovecraft, and the researcher’s production in the studio arts. It analyses how the Sublime is approached as a subject matter and principal objective within philosophical and artistic discourses, historically and within a contemporary paradigm. It also investigates the applicability of the Sublime to selected themes uncovered in H. P. Lovecraft’s work in general, and At the Mountains of Madness in particular. This is undertaken through an investigation of primary and secondary sources whose explorations and contextualization informs and supports the researcher’s practical visual studies. A reflective and critical analysis of this studio work is performed and included in the main body of the dissertation, from which a conclusion is drawn about the effectiveness of this approach. Specifically, the research explores the relevance of the Sublime both as a critical component of contemporary fine arts and as a fundamental element of the work of H. P. Lovecraft, At the Mountains of Madness in particular. In addition, the research’s practical component consists of a visual exploration of the intersection between the two. Furthermore, it represents an evaluation of this overlap in its effective translation across modes of expression, as interpreted through the medium of the researcher’s creative process.

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