The Utilization of Historical Reenactment in Lovecraft Country

Set in the 1950s, HBO's Lovecraft Country follows Atticus "Tic" Freeman as he travels back home to Chicago to investigate his estranged father's disappearance. While searching, he discovers that he is an heir to the founder of a white supremacist cult of warlocks searching for the Garden of Eden. With the historical setting, the show capitalizes on the use of reenactment. For this paper, I utilize film scholar Vivian Sobchack to examine these reenactments. She theorizes in "The Scene of the Screen: Envisioning Photographic, Cinematic, and Electronic 'Presence'" that technology has changed our perception of the world and our being. She examines three forms of modern technology that have most impacted our existence: photography, cinema, and electronic media (including television), each varying in degrees of subjectivity and temporality. Using her theory, I argue that Lovecraft Country uses all three categories of technology to reenact Black historical moments by recreating photography (in the form of montage), historical figures and events (cinematic media), and using speeches and audio performances (electronic media) as forms of reenactment. In doing so, the reenactment of history in other media becomes an affective tool for racial healing.