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P. Lovecraft’s “The Call of Cthulhu” through Jacques Lacan’s psychoanalytic concept of the Real. The discussion offers a stipulative definition of the Real and distinguishes between the transcendent Real and the Real-of-the-Symbolic, arguing that Cthulhu and R’lyeh embody the former while language-mediated communication embodies the latter. It examines how dream-logic, linguistic alienation, and an unpronounceable chant intensify separation between the artist and ordinary humanity, motivating a desire to reconnect through art.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":15,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/literature/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/the-real-in-rlyeh-on-lacan-and-lovecraft/516099/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/the-real-in-rlyeh-on-lacan-and-lovecraft/516099.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"SundayMiles","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-20","2026-10-06",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":24},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"How does the analysis define Lacan’s “Real” for this discussion?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"It uses Chiesa’s framing of the Real as undifferentiated matter before the Symbolic, and as what sits at the limits of reality where unconscious formations fall within the “Real-of-the-Symbolic.”","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"Why is Cthulhu treated as a sign of the transcendent Real?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"Cthulhu is linked to R’lyeh’s shapeless, immeasurable description and its resistance to human perception and measurement, suggesting a reality beyond subjective filters.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What role does language play in the text’s account of alienation?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"Language is presented as a source of unavoidable mediation and misunderstanding because it predates the subject; even clarification cannot convey intended meaning, intensifying alienation in Lovecraft’s account of the chant.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},516099,1791446112,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":14,"category_name":15,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":24,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":24,"language":139,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":143,"read_time":39},1099529839202,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_a8503ba1806abce46bf441b54a3ca4cd","THE REAL IN R’LYEH: ON LACAN AND LOVECRAFT  1  \nThe Real In R'lyeh: On Lacan and Lovecraft  \n| CHRIS LALIBERTE |  \nH.P. Lovecraft once wrote that the true weird tale must convey “a certain atmosphere of breathless and unexplainable dread of outer, unknown forces”(“Supernatural Horror in Literature”) . No tale achieves such expression with greater thoroughness than Lovecraft's most celebrated work, “The Call of Cthulhu,” in which a young anthropologist follows clues hidden in the dreams of artists to the discovery of a terrible and ancient deity. This primordial entity, this“outer, unknown force,” possesses many aspects reminiscent of psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan's concept of the Real. Lorenzo Chiesa understands the Real as an unattainable, unfathomable, and indescribable thing at once within and outside the scope of human symbolism (Chiesa 126) . Since Cthulhu acts as the Real, and only the mind of the artist has the ability to communicate with Cthulhu, a Lacanian reading of the text suggests that the artist's sensitivity and exposure to the Real alienates him from the less sensitive majority, and creates in him a desire to reconnect with them through art.  \nAs the concept of the Real, even for Lacan, presented itself in a nebulous form, I must first offer a stipulative definition of the Real for the purposes of this discussion. Chiesa introduces the Real as “undifferentiated matter as it is before the advent of the Symbolic,” and claims that the psychoanalytic Real sits “at the limits of reality […] all the formations of the unconscious” fall within this “Realof-the-Symbolic,” or Wirklichkeit (Chiesa 126-127) . The Real, then, applies to  \n2  CHRIS LALIBERTE – WCCT 1:1  \nanything which exists either in an entirely objective state of existence, which transcends the subjective filters of human perception, or rests purely within those filters as something perceivable, but without any tangible form or substance. While the Lacanian Real can be defined in many other ways, this argument concerns only the transcendent Real and the Real-of-the-Symbolic.  \nIn this story, Cthulhu acts as an avatar for the transcendent Real. The language used to describe the deity's resting place conveys his nebulous nature:  \n[…] a coastline of mingled mud, ooze, and weedy Cyclopean masonry which can be nothing less than the tangible substance of earth's supreme terror—the nightmare corpse—city of R'lyeh, that was built in measureless aeons behind history by the vast, loathsome shapes that seeped down from the dark stars. There lay great Cthulhu and his hordes, hidden in slimy green vaults and sending out at last, after cycles incalculable, the thoughts that spread dreams of fear to the sensitive […] (“Call of Cthulhu” 165) .  \nR'lyeh's location includes “mingled mud, ooze, and weedy Cylopean masonry,”things devoid of, or irregular in form. These details suggest that the residents, the masons of the city, possess these same vague qualities, described as merely“shapes.” The city has a “measureless” and “incalculable” chronology, even given a paradoxical situation “behind history,” a physical placement in relation to an abstract concept. The beings themselves lay “hidden” within the city, or“seeped” from the “dark” stars, shapeless and in obscurity. If this shapeless place is the “tangible substance” of Cthulhu, then Cthulhu himself must have no true shape. Since Cthulhu and R'lyeh are synonymous in substance, and the city defies description and measurement, Cthulhu, therefore, transcends the limitations of human perception and in this way reflects the concept of the Real.  \nWhile Cthulhu itself represents the transcendent Real, its communication with humans falls within the Real-of-the-Symbolic. Lacan defines language as the ultimate symbol, as well as the source of significant alienation, for “language already exists before [the subject's] birth” and “his relations with other human beings are necessarily mediated by language”(Chiesa 37) . The subject can","cbCaiqqCukAojoq5","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiqqCukAojoq5","pdf",127041,"English","# Introduction\n## Defining the Real for the discussion\n# The transcendent Real in R’lyeh and Cthulhu\n# The Real-of-the-Symbolic: language, alienation, and the chant\n# The artist’s sensitivity and alienation","[{\"question\":\"How does the analysis define Lacan’s “Real” for this discussion?\",\"answer\":\"It uses Chiesa’s framing of the Real as undifferentiated matter before the Symbolic, and as what sits at the limits of reality where unconscious formations fall within the “Real-of-the-Symbolic.”\"},{\"question\":\"Why is Cthulhu treated as a sign of the transcendent Real?\",\"answer\":\"Cthulhu is linked to R’lyeh’s shapeless, immeasurable description and its resistance to human perception and measurement, suggesting a reality beyond subjective filters.\"},{\"question\":\"What role does language play in the text’s account of alienation?\",\"answer\":\"Language is presented as a source of unavoidable mediation and misunderstanding because it predates the subject; even clarification cannot convey intended meaning, intensifying alienation in Lovecraft’s account of the chant.\"}]","THE REAL IN R’LYEH - On Lacan and Lovecraft | PDF",1791325282]