Description
Book SynopsisA Century of Weird Fiction, 1832-1937 offers a new critical perspective on the weird that combines two ways of looking at weird and cosmic horror. On the one hand, critics have considered weird fiction in relation to aesthetics - the emotional effects and literary form of the weird. On the other hand, recent scholarship has also emphasised the potential philosophical underpinnings and implications of weird fiction, especially in relation to burgeoning philosophical movements such as new materialism and speculative realism. This study bridges the gap between these two approaches, considering the weird from its early outgrowth from the Gothic through to Lovecraft's stories - a `weird century' from 1832-1937. Combining recent speculative philosophy and affect theory, it argues that weird fiction harnesses the affective power of disgust to provoke a re-examination of subjectival boundaries and the complex entanglement of the human and nonhuman.
Trade Review"Timely and astute. . ." * Review 19 *
“Jonathan Newell’s rigorous analysis reveals how weird fiction has anticipated and influenced important movements in contemporary philosophy. This book offers striking new critical insights, giving a fresh perspective on Lovecraft as well as illuminating critically neglected writers such as William Hope Hodgson. Newell writes with depth, sensitivity and flair, and A Century of Weird Fiction is sure to become a key text for scholars working across Gothic and Horror Studies, as well as those with an interest in contemporary philosophy.”
-- Chloé Germaine Buckley, Manchester Metropolitan University
“This book is ‘disgusting’ in that word’s etymological sense: it ‘turns’ our ‘taste’ toward the affective disruptions of human life. Newell moves among classical and contemporary philosophy, canonical and contemporary weird fiction, theory and close reading, to articulate precisely the sliminess of our being. A critical tour de force!"
-- Steven Bruhm, Western University, Canada
Table of ContentsChapter 1: Introduction - Metaphysical Malignancies Chapter 2: The Putrescent Principle - Edgar Allan Poe Chapter 3: Ecstasies of Slime - Arthur Machen Chapter 4: Horrible Enchantments - Algernon Blackwood Chapter 5: Disgusting Powers - William Hope Hodgson Chapter 6: Daemonology of Unplumbed Space - Howard Phillips Lovecraft Conclusion: The Wisdom of the Unhuman Bibliography
