Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.22210/ur.2025.069.1/06
Matter and life. Lovecraft, antimodernism and new vitalisms
Luka Bekavac
; Filozofski fakultet u Zagrebu
Abstract
The text examines the ways in which vitalism, a metaphysical element of antimodernist complexes analyzed by Zoran Kravar, continues to operate in recent materialist philosophy. After an introduction that provides a context for this research, H. P. Lovecraft’s œuvre is considered as a specific genre iteration of antimodernist themes, but also as a formative influence on the philosophy of speculative realism. The next chapter deals with the role of cosmic horror in Reza Negarestani’s hybrid theoretical-fictional Cyclonopedia, followed by a closer reading of his “necrovitalist” ontology. The final chapter examines a different take on Lovecraft in Donna J. Haraway’s and Jane Bennett’s new materialism, shifting the emphasis to life as an interspecies entanglement, and the problems of agency and political responsibility.
Keywords
vitalism, materialism, antimodernism, speculative realism, theoretical fiction, horror
Hrčak ID:
333764
URI
Publication date:
15.7.2025.
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