Dirk W. Mosig
Yōzan Dirk W. Mosig (born 1943) is a psychologist, historian, literary critic and ordained Zen monk noted for his critical work on H. P. Lovecraft. He was born in Germany and lived for several years in Argentina before emigrating to the United States. He received his Ph.D at the University of Florida in 1974.
His article "H. P. Lovecraft: Myth Maker" (1976) takes issue with August Derleth's interpretation of Lovecraft's work and emphasises the latter's vision of an amoral cosmos in which humanity has little significance. In his essay "Lovecraft: The Dissonance Factor in Imaginative Literature" (1979),[1] insanity is the result of a fatal cognitive dissonance in the protagonist caused by encounters with cosmic horrors that contradict the protagonist's (and the reader's) worldview of the universe and its laws.
S. T. Joshi has stated that "Dirk Mosig is the key transitional figure in Lovecraft studies; and if the history of this field is ever written, he will have to occupy a central role."[2]
Mosig currently teaches psychology at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, where he is also engaged in research on the Punic Wars and the career of Hannibal Barca.
References
- ↑ Dirk W. Mosig, "Lovecraft: The Dissonance Factor in Imaginative Literature", The Platte Valley Review 7, No.1 (1979), Kearney State College Press, p. 129-144. Also part of his collection of essays Mosig at Last: A Psychologist Looks at H.P. Lovecraft. By Yōzan Dirk W. Mosig. West Warwick, RI: Necronomicon Press; August 1997. German translation: "Lovecraft: Der Dissonanz-Faktor in der Phantastischen Literatur" (1979), in H.P. Lovecraft - Stadt ohne Namen, Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main (1981).
- ↑ Mosig at Last: A Psychologist Looks at H. P. Lovecraft, Necronomicon Press, 1997, p.123