美国文学欣赏Edgar_Allan_Poe

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)
“我经常沉湎杯中物，但喝 酒并没使我感到半点儿乐 趣。我不惜生命和名声， 不顾理智，一味喝酒，并 非追求乐趣，而是竭力逃 避令人痛苦的回忆，逃避 无法忍受的孤寂，逃避迫 在眼前的大限。”
• A bitter and mysterious death: in 1847, wife died of tuberculosis, in 1849, died in mysterious circumstances
Today, his works are read with appreciation and understanding.
• Poe was the first American writer who formulized the technique of the short story.
• In pursuit of the totality of effect through compression, immediacy and finality, Poe invented the genre of the detective story and developed a new fiction of psychological analysis.
• Henry James: “an enthusiasm for Poe is the mark of a decidedly primitive state of development”
• Whitman: admit Poe’s genius, but it was “its narrow range and unhealthy, lurid quality” (terrible)
His position
Poe’s position in world literature is secure. His influence is world-wide in modern literature. His aesthetics and conscious craftsmanship, his attack on “the heresy of the didactic” and his call for “the rhythmical creation of beauty” have influenced French symbolism and the devotees of “art for art’s sake”. Poe is father of many things, one of which is psychoanalytic criticism, the other being the detective story.
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym (1838)
• Not accepted before French symbolists like Charles Pierre Baudelaire (1821-1867) and Mallarmé.
In America
• Emerson: “the jingle man” (noisy)
• Mark Twain: His prose is unreadable.
• Poe has thus often been considered as the father of the modern short story.
Part III. Major Works
• Famous American poet, short-story writer, and literary critic
• 2) His literary executor sullied his reputation after his death.
In Europe
• George Bernard Shaw: “the greatest journalistic critic of his time”
• His poetry is “exquisitely refined”. • His tales are “complete works of art”. • Baudelaire: “Edgar Poe, who isn’t much in
artistic effect
Comments on Poe
• Edgar Allan Poe is the most controversial and the most misunderstood literary figure in the history of American literature.
This daguerreotype of Poe was taken in 1848 when he was 39, a year before his death
Life Experience
• A miserable childhood: born in Boston, both parents died within two years after his birth, taken into the home of John Allan in Virginia, had an unhappy relationship with his foster father
• A struggling life: in 1833, became an editor of Southern Literary Messenger in Richmond, lost the position because of excessive drinking and an inability to meet deadlines, managed to regain the job in 1835, at 27, married his 13 year-old cousin, Virginia Clemm, drifted for several years as editors in different magazines but remained poor all his life
• “我不在乎我的作品是 现在被人读还是由子孙 后代来读。我可以花一 个世纪来等待读者。”
Edgar Allan Poe
• Emerson dismissed him in three words “the jingle man” (打油诗人)，Mark Twain declared his prose to be unreadable. And Whitman was the only famous literary figure present at the Poe Memorial Ceremony in 1875.
• 肖伯纳：“wenku.baidu.com们不仅仅是一篇篇小说，而完全 是一件件艺术品。”
Poe enjoyed respect and welcome in Europe
His reputation was first made in France
Poe's influence was considerable in Spain, Italy, Germany and Russia.
Edgar Allan Poe
• Poe’s literary contribution
– Aestheticism
• Principle of beauty • Principle of unity and concentration • Careful choice of diction for desired effect (the
• An unhappy youth: at 17 went to the University of Virginia but did not finish, an appointment to West Point but was dismissed less than a year later
musical effect of words themselves) • Negligence of so-called truth and social, political and
moral suggestions • “Pure poetry” or “pure art” • Unity of effect and atmosphere; content in service of
was adopted by John Allan
an unhappy
relationship
her death in 1847 left him a bitterer life
died in mysterious circumstances, in 1849
Part II. Poe’s literary position
Edgar Allan Poe 坡
(1809—1849)
E.A. Poe (1809—1849)
Poe’s mother
Edgar Allan Poe
（1809—1849）埃德加.爱伦.坡
• Part I. Life Experience • Part II Literary Position • Part III. Major Works • Part IV. Point of View • Part V. Style • Part VI. Appreciation
Life Experience
a miserable childhood
entered the University but didn’t finish went to West Point but was dismissed
at 27 he married his 13-year-old cousin
– Forerunner of western decadent literature – Forerunner of aesthetic literature – Explorer of abnormal psychology – Father of psychoanalytic criticism – Path-breaker of American detective novel – Father of modern short story
• T. S. Eliot: a critic of the first rank, but with “slipshod writing” (careless)
Reasons for Misunderstanding
• 1) As a perceptive critic, he wrote some scathing criticisms on distinguished literary figures.
America, must become a great man in France.”
• 柯南道尔：“一名侦探小说家只能沿这条不宽 的主道而行，所以他时时都会发现前方有坡的 脚印。如果他偶尔能设法偏离主道，独辟蹊径， 那他就可以感到心满意足了。”
• 凡尔纳：“他肯定会有模仿者，有人会试图超 越他，有人会试图发展他的风格，但许多自以 为已经超过他的人其实永远也不可能与他相提 并论。”
• Most controversial and misunderstood in America • Well received in Europe, England, Spain, esp. in France • Literary output:
some seventy short stories and a dozen poems • A: Poems • B: Short stories • C: literary theory • D: one full-length novel: