Cthulhu Fhtagn: Dreams and Nightmares in the Fantasy Fiction of H. P. Lovecraft

摘要

This article discusses the central role of dreaming in the life and fiction of the American writer H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937). Many of Lovecraft's stories were directly inspired by his own personal dreams and nightmares. Lovecraft was not particularly well known during his lifetime, but his reputation as a master of short horror fiction has cast enormous influence on the fantasy and science fiction genres for many decades. Almost all of his stories create a "dreamy" atmosphere of uncertainty, mystery, and potential danger, and several of them use dreams as key elements in the plot. The article suggests that Lovecraft was a big dreamer who cultivated metacognitive skills for exploring and writing about the mystical and gravitational dimensions of prototypical dreaming.