ABSTRACT

This chapter examines how women of color re-engage Lovecraftian themes and philosophy in ways that retain and renew their relevance to the 21st century. I contrast short fiction by Gabriela Santiago and Valerie Valdes with H.P. Lovecraft’s cosmic indifferentism to argue that women of color do not necessarily require an encounter with vast, universal forces to feel insignificant. Rather, Santiago’s story “None of This Ever Happened” suggests that white supremacist culture is enough to diminish or altogether erase their subjectivity. Under this premise, “Shub-Niggurath’s Witnesses” by Valdes characterizes actual encounters with entities from Lovecraft’s pantheon as liberating, even uplifting. Realizing that humanity writ large is relatively inconsequential, Valdes suggests, frees her characters from the restrictive constructs that otherwise police their actions. This analysis is grounded in feminist indigenous and posthumanist theories, which work to decenter rigid definitions of the human and situate us within a larger network of more-than-human relations. Ultimately, understanding the perspectives of women of color opens new lines of inquiry into Lovecraft’s fiction and legacy, as readers are encouraged to seek new affects in what he otherwise brushes off as solely horrifying.