Grad Students Enter the Field of Lovecraft Scholarship with Theses and Dissertations

The gleefully obfuscated world of Lovecraftian scholarship has had its fair share of literary heroes and erudite champions. Intrepid authors such as S.T. Joshi, Robert M. Price, and Lin Carter--to name just a few--have paved the way for a place next to Poe on the Gothic pedestal of pseudo-canonicity for everyone's favorite mechanistic materialist. (This we know to be only a humble beginning) However, the internet has afforded us insight into a new generation of previously unsung heroes in the field of dark scholarship.

Recent years have seen a surge in the production of numerous Master's theses and Doctoral dissertations featuring or including analysis and commentary of HPL. These cover a vast number of academic disciplines and are written in diverse languages. We were also thrilled to discover that some of these can be read by the public free of charge via the Networked Digital Library of Electronic Theses and Dissertations. We hope access to this resource is recognized and utilized by fans and academics alike.

Search the digital library here:

Here are a few works that caught our eye. . .


"CTHULHU LIVES!: A DESCRIPTIVE STUDY OF THE H.P. LOVECRAFT
HISTORICAL SOCIETY" by J. Michael Bestul
Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, Theatre and Film, 2006.

Despite the rich vein of possibilities for study that tabletop and live-action role-playing games present, few scholars have dug deeply. The goal of this study is to start digging. Operating at the crossroads of art and entertainment, theater and gaming, work and play, it seeks to add the live-action role-playing game, CTHULHU LIVES, to the discussion of performance studies. By studying the game and the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society, one begins to see a unique medium that defies simple classification. Most importantly, this study looks at a performance entity that places “fun” directly at the center of its goals. There is plenty of discussion in general scholarship about performance styles that are political or artistic, or have some grand purpose. What is missing is what is found in this study: a description of CTHULHU LIVES, a performance medium that exists for the grandest of purposes, epic fun.

View here:

“BOOT CAMP FOR THE PSYCHE”: INOCULATIVE NONFICTION AND PRE-MEMORY STRUCTURES AS PREEMPTIVE TRAUMA MEDIATION IN FICTION AND FILM by Jacob M. Hodgen
Master of Arts, Department of English Brigham Young University, 2008

As a specific point of contact, this study will reread H.P. Lovecraft’s notion of “cosmic horror” as an example of the inoculative potentiality of textual horror. Though any number of horror texts or authors or might adequately function as examples for this section, Lovecraft is an ideal candidate for several reasons. First, while I contend that nearly all horror can be read as inoculative to some degree, most authors do not intend it outright, and I have already demonstrated how a text that is aware of it inoculative potentiality functions in the case

(Chapter 3) View thesis here:

If you find any more, send the links to us, and we will post them as well.