Making of national literature 1800 -1865 - Part 2

Romanticism - a particular attitude toward the realities of man, nature, society.

Characteristics :

• free, rebellious spirit

• individualism

• intuition

• inner life, importance of the subconscious

• strangeness and mystery

• fantastic visions

• enthusiasm for primitive life

• nature (source of the knowledge of the primitive, refuge from civilization, revelation of God to the individual)

• idealizing the `noble savage' - an individual not spoiled by luxury and sophistication

• stress on emotion rather than reason

• subjectivity in form and meaning

Edgar Allan Poe (1809 - 1849) - tu jego zdjęcie :PP ]:-> - podobny ^^

Family background :

- Poe's mother - a talented English actress, Elizabeth Arnold

- Poe's father - a much less talented American (Irish) actor, David Poe. He was an alcoholic who deserted his wife and their three infant children.

- Poe's mother dies of consumption (tuberculosis) in 1811 before Poe's second birthday

-Poe is taken to the home of John Allan and his wife

- John Allan - a wealthy tobacco merchant. Poe takes Allan as his middle name, after his foster father.

Relations with his foster father :

Gains :

• Poe spent time in England, beginning his education in private schools.

• Admitted to the University of Virginia and later to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

Suffering:

• Given a small allowance at the University of Virginia Poe turns to gambling, later got no allowance at all and could not pay his gambling debts.

• Dismissed from West Point for violations of academy regulations.

Poe's mother - Elisabeth Arnold Poe

Poe's first wife - Virginia Clemm Poe

Poe's first marriage :

Poe married his thirteen-year-old cousin Virginia Clemm in 1835.

• This marriage gave his life some affection and structure.

• In 1842, Virginia ruptured a blood vessel while singing.

• When she died in 1847, he fell into an abnormal state of mind and body.

Poe's character :

• Poe had an unstable temperament

• Was insecure, troubled, disturbed, neurotic, unhappy with reasonless fears.

• Led a life of outward struggle and inner turmoil

• Moved from Richmond (Virginia) to New York, then to Philadelphia and finally to Baltimore

• Maintained real and varied interest in the world around him (letters, reviews, essays), not only in literature but also in theatre, architecture, music, painting, commerce, education, governments and science

• Kept the pose and beliefs of a Southern aristocrat

Poe's has been described by others as a :

• sado-masochist, dipsomaniac, drug addict, manias-depressive, sex pervert and egomaniac

Poe's ways of writing :

• had genius when he was wealthy

• had strong ambitions and enormous capacity for work

• used his experience in his writing

• he meticulously revised what he regarded his best work

• had a logical mind (analyzing literary works in a magazine he edited- one of the best critics of his day)

• the chief aim of the story writer should be to create an effect upon the reader's mind and feelings

• the writer should first decide what effect he wanted to create, and then should make every event and word help achieve it

• Poe was a master of atmosphere, picturing and suspense(like today's psycho-thrillers)

Poe invented the detective story: The `ratiocinative' tale

The devices used in it :

• a brilliant detective

• the device of the `baffled friend' - the detective's companion is not good at solutions. The detective tells him the story.

• At the end - the detective discloses his surprising solution and `elucidates' - step by step the reasoning that led to it.

• By eliminating all the impossibilities, you arrive at the truth

• The foil is rather stupid

• The official guardians of the law are blundering and unimaginative

• The `locked room' convention

• The unjust suspicion

• Deduction by putting one's self in another's position.

Poe's contribution to literary theory :

• Poet as a Maker

• `The philosophy of Composition' or ` How I Wrote the Raven' (1846) -famous account of Poe's poetic practice

• Every effect is planned, poetry is not spontaneous, it is strategic

• There are no accidents, no effects of inspiration

Poe's poetry :

• ideal subjects of poetry: beauty, melancholy and death

• beauty - is `the essence of the poem'

• sadness - is the tone of beauty's `highest manifestation'

• has musical patterns uses incantation, hypnotic rhythm, and verbal melody, creating a sense of mystery

• repetition of sounds

• the poet shares the world beyond phenomenal experience, like priest, shaman, or magician with almost divine knowledge, leading readers to the `Promised land', so they forget the ordinary world - for example, the poem `Dreamland'.

Poe's themes :

• may be connected with the mental state of the author, but do not explain the work itself

• confinement

• burden of a doubt

• death - of a beautiful woman, the seductive nature of death

• beauty

• alienation

• loss, despair

• violence

• double self (split-personality)

• inner conflict

• life after death

• scientific discoveries (trips into space, under the seas)

• urban sociology

Poe's hero :

• a lonely, alienated, tormented outsider

• driven to the brink of madness

• living thorough crises of consciousness

• experiences terror of the soul, anxiety and impulse toward self-destruction

• sinking into nightmare

• exploring the irrational, flirting with the anti-rational

Poe's settings :

• mysterious, exotic, remote and away from the ordinary, phenomenal world

• the sights and souls are fleeting, ephemeral

• scenes are shadowy, with dusky colors and dim lighting

Poe's works:

• Tamerlane and Other poems(1827)- first volume of poems

• Al Aaraaf (1829) - second volume of poems

• Poems (1831) - third volume of poems

• `Metzengerstein: A tale in imitation of the German' (1832) his first published story appeared in Philadelphia's Saturday Courier . It follows many conventions of Gothic fiction (weird, chilling, frightening and horrifying: in gloomy castles, crypts and gloomy mansions : with images of ruin and decay; episodes of imprisonment, cruelty, and persecution).

• `A MS Found in a bottle' (1833) - won him a literary prize.

• The narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym(1838) - a long prose work.

• `The fall of the House of Usher' (1839) - appeared in Burton's Gentleman's Magazine. (Poe was its editor.)

• Tales of Grotesque and Arabesque (1841)- two-volume work of short stories. It included `The fall of the House of Usher'

• `The murders in the Rue Morgue' (1841) - appeared in Graham's Magazine. It is generally considered to be the first modern detective story, it features the intellectual detective C. Augustine Dupin.

• `The Gold Bug' (1843)- achieved considerable renown.

• `The Raven and other poems' (1845) - `The raven' brought him national fame

• Famous poems : `The Bells' - Poe's most extreme phonic experiment(capturing the actual sound of bells). `Eldorado' -man's eternal quest for heaven, truth, or beauty (the California Gold Rush, 1949)

Unlucky in death as he had been in life thanks to an editor, critic and anthologist, Poe's literary executor and enemy.

WYKŁAD 22.11.2010

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