{"id":2,"date":"2020-08-20T12:53:53","date_gmt":"2020-08-20T16:53:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/lovecraftracialimaginaries\/?page_id=2"},"modified":"2026-04-29T11:30:47","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T15:30:47","slug":"home-page","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/lovecraftracialimaginaries\/","title":{"rendered":"Introduction"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Exhibition<\/figure>\n\n\n
\n
\"H.P.
H. P. Lovecraft, “Cthulhu” (1934). Howard P. Lovecraft Collection. Brown University Library, Special Collections.
VIEW IN COLLECTION (BROWN DIGITAL REPOSITORY)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In a letter to poet Elizabeth Toldridge, widely influential weird fiction author H. P. Lovecraft muses about the relation between art and imagination:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Art is simply the language of the imagination raised to the highest degree of poignancy, it makes no difference whether the imagination contains what that age & race may consider \u2018good,\u2019 or whether it contains what that age & race happens to group as \u2018evil.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

At first glance, Lovecraft\u2019s emphasis on \u201crace\u201d might seem conspicuous. However, a closer look at his personal correspondence reveals that (a particular understanding of the concept of) \u201crace\u201d exerted a tremendous influence on Lovecraft by shaping both his politics and literary work to a great extent. This exhibition offers a glimpse of Lovecraft\u2019s \u201cracial imaginaries\u201d and their impact on his fiction. It hopes to reveal that, as author China Mi\u00e9ville says, \u201cthere is nothing epiphenomenal about racism in Lovecraft.\u201d Put differently, Lovecraft\u2019s race thinking cannot be separated from his body of work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In recent decades, the view that Lovecraft was a \u201cracist\u201d has become a well-worn fact. Instead of reaching toward this conclusion, this exhibition holds it as a premise, thereby creating a series of questions: In what ways do Lovecraft\u2019s race thinking surface in his fiction? If, in the words of Mi\u00e9ville again, his race thinking cannot \u201cbe divorced from [his] writing at all,\u201d how can we critically \u201cmetabolize\u201d it so that we understand and appreciate it differently<\/em>? Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, what are the implications of the fact that some of the most enduring aspects of Lovecraft\u2019s work \u2014 such as his particular style of cosmic horror, his engagement with deep time and his central concern and attendant horror with representing entities that are beyond representation \u2014 are \u201cgreat\u201d not despite his race thinking but because<\/em> of it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This exhibition is divided into two main parts. The first focuses on Lovecraft\u2019s personal correspondence and establishes some of the main elements of Lovecraft’s race thinking, namely, his traditionalism and his fear of miscegenation and cultural exchange. The second half of the exhibition focuses on selected literary works and tracks how these elements serve as central themes in his fiction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a letter to poet Elizabeth Toldridge, widely influential weird fiction author H. P. Lovecraft muses about the relation between art and imagination: Art is simply the language of the imagination raised to the highest degree of poignancy, it makes no difference whether the imagination contains what that age & race may consider \u2018good,\u2019 or … Introduction<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"template-full-width.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/lovecraftracialimaginaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/lovecraftracialimaginaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/lovecraftracialimaginaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/lovecraftracialimaginaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/lovecraftracialimaginaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2"}],"version-history":[{"count":31,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/lovecraftracialimaginaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":555,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/lovecraftracialimaginaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions\/555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/lovecraftracialimaginaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}