Moshenska, Gabriel;
(2024)
Archaeological, industrial and biological dimensions of subterranean horror in L.T.C. Rolt’s The Mine.
Time and Mind: The Journal of Archaeology, Consciousness and Culture
10.1080/1751696X.2024.2431020.
(In press).
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Abstract
Subterranean settings are common in horror: the buried realms of darkness, demons and the dead have long and rich cultural histories. In this paper I explore three distinct themes in underground horror: the archaeological, where ancient buried mysteries meet modern interference; the industrial, where the arrogance of extractive modernity must be humbled; and the biological, where new forms of life – pale, blind, predatory – evolve in isolated darkness. To illustrate these themes I examine the 1948 short horror story The Mine by industrial historian L.T.C. Rolt, and consider how these three dimensions of the subterranean uncanny are weaved together into a striking and original tale. These are just three amongst many other cultural, literary and folkloric forms in underground horror, and this paper is intended as a starting point for further exploration of these intertwined themes.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Archaeological, industrial and biological dimensions of subterranean horror in L.T.C. Rolt’s The Mine |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1080/1751696X.2024.2431020 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1080/1751696x.2024.2431020 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent. |
| Keywords: | Antiquarianism; folklore; speleobiology; uncanny; underground |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Institute of Archaeology UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Institute of Archaeology > Institute of Archaeology Gordon Square |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10202938 |
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