Kastor Ornowski
“Something queer in the cellar”: Reading H. P. Lovecraft’s Pickman Through a Queer Gothic Lens
Polish Journal for American Studies, vol. 18 (2024), pp. 181-199

Abstract: The article’s aim is to examine two of Howard Philips Lovecraft’s texts—the short story “Pickman’s Model” and the novella The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath—through the lens of queer Gothic. My focus will be the recurring character of Richard Upton Pickman, alongside the trope of ghouls associated with him in both narratives. Using the combined methodologies of Gothic and queer studies, I propose to view the character and the monsters as queer figures. Pickman in both texts is portrayed as a liminal, “eccentric and abnormal” character whose transgressive desires and artworks cause scandal and evoke reactions of profound abhorrence, anxiety, and horror. As will be argued, Gothic tropes of secrecy and abject monstrosity linked with ghouls can be read as an expression of anxieties regarding masculinity and sexuality, revealing a subnarrative of homophobia. The latter subject has been discussed by Lovecraft scholars; however, I contend that, while such a subnarrative is present in the selected short story, the novella explores the issue and queer characters with more nuance and sympathy.

Keywords: H. P. Lovecraft, queer, Gothic, space, liminality, body

DOI: 10.7311/PJAS.18/2024.13

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