Getting on with the weird anyway : China Miéville and the New Weird

Abstract

The following dissertation will be an analysis of China Miéville's novel Perdido Street Station, placed within the context of the community-created 'super genre' the New Weird. The close reading of the subgenre-cum-movement's defining novel will serve as a culmination, as it will be preceded by an analysis of the Internet forum discussion which gave rise to the term, a consideration of the pro-New Weird manifestoes presented by both participating writers and fans and a historical genealogy of the phenomenon, as defined by the key figures of H.P. Lovecraft and Mervyn Peake, as well as its more direct predecessor: Michael Moorcock's efforts with the 'New Wave' of British speculative fiction. Attention will be paid to the way the New Weird positions itself culturally, as supported or contradicted by Miéville's - supposedly 'stock New Weird' - effort.