Shifting Through the Madness: Nature in the Works of H. P. Lovecraft and Georg Büchner
Humanities
LIT 149
In this thesis, the dichotomy of human nature versus mere Nature is explored through the short stories of H. P. Lovecraft and Georg Büchner's novella Lenz. By probing how these writers engage their text with this dichotomy (their specific uses of narrative, style, and philosophies to portray the human failure of understanding Nature), I mean to showcase how both writers, despite spanning several historical, geographical, and political backgrounds, question the notion of 'madness' beyond its understanding as a mental disease. This essay hopes to bring new understanding to what 'madness' could mean and introduce these texts as examples; showcase two alternate forms of 'madness' that recontextualizes the dichotomy between human nature and mere Nature: The schizophrenic view/ weird realism.
