爱伦坡 Allan Poe.pptVIP

American Romanticism Edgar Allan Poe Romanticism The era of Romanticism spans from the late 18th to the mid-19th century following the French Revolution. It is “an attitude or intellectual orientation that characterized many works of literature, painting, music, architecture, criticism, and historiography in Western civilization.” [Pioch, 2002] The American Romanticism Romantic Period in American Literature, 1830-1865 the inauguration of President Andrew Jackson in 1829 (the Jacksonian Era ) the close of the Civil War Concepts of Romanticism 1) an innate, intuitive and subjective perception of man, nature and society instead of a objective and rational one 2) an emphasis on freedom, individuality and imagination 3) a profound love for nature and a harmonious relationship with nature 4) the quest for beauty 5) the use of antique and grotesque subject matters Edgar Allan Poe the critic Poe the poet Poe * a practitioner of the short story a progenitor of detective fiction and crime fiction a contributor to science fiction genre A combination of Romanticism and Gothicism? Gothic Romanticism Poe’s poetics 1) the totality/unity of effect as a vastly important artistic element – short and readable at one sitting 2) poetry as an elevation of the soul to ideal/supernal beauty – the death of a beautiful woman is unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world 3) Melancholy is the most legitimate mood/tone. 4) Poe defines poetry as “the rhythmical creation of beauty”. The Fall Of the House Of Usher(1839) The Philosophy of Composition In the whole composition there should be no word written, of which the tendency, direct or indirect, is not to the one preestablished design. If an author’s very initial sentence tend not to the outbringing of this single effect, then he has failed in his first step. The Tell-Tale Heart (1843) The Philosophy of Composition I asked myself- ‘Of all melancholy topics, what, according to the universal understanding of mankind, is