The purpose of this essay is to show how elements of racism and xenophobia manifest themselves in H.P. Lovecraft’s 1931 novella The Shadow over Innsmouth. Through a close reading of the text, I show how these two matters contribute to creating fear and horror in the story. In addition to the analysis of the text I also relate the elements found in the text to letters and essays written by Lovecraft to show how several aspects of the novella contribute to the theme of racism and xenophobia. Throughout the essay I suggest how topics such as miscegenation, the vilification of another race of people and even the landscape itself mesh together to form the basis of the horror and the fear in the story. In the end, it is clear that Lovecraft’s own racism permeates the story.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:kau-40555 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | Pettersson, Mattias |
| Publisher | Karlstads universitet, Institutionen för språk, litteratur och interkultur |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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