Horror Homeroom, Special Issue #3: LOVECRAFT COUNTRY (Winter 2021)
****EXTENDED DEADLINE – Abstracts due Sunday November 8, 2020 ****
Lovecraft Country is a radical new intervention in the horror world. Based on the 2016 novel of the same name by Matt Ruff, the 10-episode HBO series is produced and written by Misha Green, who serves as the series showrunner. Jordan Peele and J. J. Abrams are also involved as producers, and the series showcases a diverse array of directors (including Cheryl Dunye).
The series premiered on August 16, 2020 and will end on October 18–and it’s already generating a lot of discussion around its use of horror tropes to tell the story of racism in the US. As Misha Green has said of living in the US as a Black woman, “It’s literally, you’re in a horror movie [with] monsters at every turn” (Stidhum). At least one commentator (in The Atlantic) has argued that Lovecraft Country is not well-served by “its white characters’ near-comic monstrousness” (Giorgis)–and there are already syllabi! Erica Buddington and the Langston League are putting together a syllabus for each episode. (Here’s the syllabus for episode 1.)
We invite submissions on any aspect of Lovecraft Country. Emerging and advanced scholars, popular writers, and fans are all invited to submit abstracts. Possible topics include, but are not limited to:
—Lovecraft Country as a horror text (perhaps in relation to Jordan Peele’s other horror projects);
—Lovecraft Country in the tradition of Black Gothic / horror;
–the series as a commentary on US racism–including, for instance, thinking about the ways in which a novel / series set in the 1950s has something to say about the present moment;
–the intersection of gender with race in the series (significantly, for instance, a major male figure in the novel, Caleb Braithwhite, becomes a woman–Christina–in the series);
–the relation of the HBO series to Matt Ruff’s novel;
Related: You can purchase Ruff’s Lovecraft Country on Amazon:
–the ways in which H. P. Lovecraft (and other white weird / horror writers) get taken up in the plot of both novel and TV series–as well as the role that comics play in both;
–-Lovecraft Country’s commentary on the police (one commentator for Jacobin has argued that the series demonstrates that “the scariest American monster is the white-supremacist cop”);
–the role of costuming in character and plot development;
–how the series depicts Indigenous culture, most notably through its treatment of Yahima;
–how the series engages with historical memory;
–the development of character (Black and white) in the long-form narrative of a TV series.
Please submit abstracts of 500 words and a brief bio to Dawn Keetley, Ayanna Woods, and Elizabeth Erwin at horrorhomeroom@gmail.com, dek7@lehigh.edu, and dmw319@lehigh.edu by October 30, 2020. Articles will be limited to 2,500 words and should be written for a general audience. If your abstract is accepted, completed essays will be due December 7, 2020 in order to ensure publication in early January. We welcome all questions and inquiries!
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
“What Lovecraft Country Gets Wrong about Racial Horror”
https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2020/08/lovecraft-country/615259/
“Lovecraft Country and the Horror Story of America”
https://thegrapevine.theroot.com/lovecraft-country-and-the-horror-story-of-america-1844726148
“Bringing H. P. Lovecraft to Jim Crow America”
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/08/h-p-lovecraft-country-jordan-peele-hbo
“‘Lovecraft Country’ Review: Nightmare on Jim Crow Street”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/13/arts/television/lovecraft-country-review.html
“Where White People Are Scarier Than Monsters: The Hidden Black History of Lovecraft Country”
https://www.theroot.com/where-white-people-are-scarier-than-monsters-the-hidde-1845000536
“And now, the ‘Strange Case’ of Black Women in a White Man’s Lovecraft Country”
https://tv.avclub.com/and-now-the-strange-case-of-black-women-in-a-white-m-1845044600
“LOVECRAFT COUNTRY Uses Body Horror to Liberate Ruby Baptiste”
https://nerdist.com/article/lovecraft-country-body-horror-ruby/
NOTE: Special issue #3 was going to be devoted to the Candyman series, including Nia DaCosta’s “spiritual sequel.” The release date of the latter, however, has been indefinitely postponed to some time in 2021, so we are, accordingly, delaying our special issue on the films until the latest installment becomes available. You can see our call for papers here if you want to get thinking.
