WRITING IN PRACTICE VOL 9

ABSTRACT

The horror writer H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937) is an enduring figure in contemporary genre writing and his legacy continues to shape the field of weird fiction. But he is a controversial character and, on a line by line level, a poor writer, and responding to his work prompts multiple challenges for the contemporary creative writer. My collection, Maps to Arkham, seeks to understand and disrupt this legendary figure through a series of visual poems which respond to Lovecraft’s attitudes towards language, walking and the landscape. This essay examines the artistic process of détournement, as theorized by the avant-garde Situationist group, and other visual poet’s approach to the concept, and contextualizes my own digital appropriation of Lovecraft’s fiction. This approach provides a framework by which experimental poetry can write through a historical figure, both confronting and parodying them, and poses questions for the role of design software in visual poetry.

KEYWORDS

H. P. Lovecraft, visual poetry, digital poetry, creative writing, landscape, psychogeography, weird fiction, the situationists, architecture, Susan Howe.

 HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE

Kemp, Sam. (2023) Maps to Arkham: Lovecraft, Landscape and Visual Poetry. Writing in Practice. 9. 62-80 DOI: 10.62959-WIP-09-2023-06