“An Author Out of Time”: Structural Parallelisms between H. P. Lovecraft and Local Color

Abstract

[eng] Traditional conceptions of literary history postulate that literary movements are consequent and that the beginning of a new one means the end of the previous. Nonetheless, postmodern revisions of the theory of literary analysis have entirely shifted the comprehension of time, history, and literary history. Literary movements are seen as consecutive and co-influencing, but postmodern waves of literary revisionism establish new insights on the development of styles and stories. Such is the case of Howard Phillips Lovecraft, a United States horror and science-fiction author who lived during the peaks of both Realism and Modernism, but whose work cannot be encompassed within either movement. With the postmodern trend of literary analysis, Lovecraft has been studied as a representative of 20th century Romanticism, and new paths in his analysis have opened. This paper argues that the narrative structure of Lovecraft’s “The Nameless City,” “The Festival,” The Shadow over Innsmouth, and The Shadow out of Time follows that of the late 19th century local color trend of American Romanticism. Traits such as the depth of detail in the descriptions of landscapes, traditions, and mannerisms; the stereotypical role of the main and secondary characters; and the constant relation to the past connect these cosmic horror texts to a style traditionally encompassing costumbrist depictions of life in isolated rural communities. After analyzing the narrative structure of these works, many parallelisms have been found between them and classic examples of local color.