2013-3 edgar llan poe 12013-3 edgar allan poe 12013-3 edgar allan poe 12013-3 edgar allan poe 1.pptVIP

2013 American Literature 3 Edgar Allen Poe (1) (1809-1849) The main points His life and works His contribution in literature Art of his short stories Story: The Cask of Amontillado - 1809, born in Boston, - 1811, became an orphan. -1812, adopted by John Allan, a businessman, and named himself Edgar Allan Poe. - 1826-27, attended the University of Virginia, expelled for not paying his gambling debts, leading to quarrel with Allan, who refused to pay the debts, and later disowned him. - 1827, joined the U.S. Army. - 1830, entered West Point. - 1833, lived with Mrs. Maria Clemm and Virginia Clemm. - 1836 Poe married his 13-year-old Virginia Clemm - 1847 Virginia died of tuberculosis. 1849, died in New York because of overdrinking. (Rufus Griswold- Poe’s character assassination) Portrait of Mrs. Poe - Young; Large black and brilliant eyes; Her raven hair A pearly whiteness of complexion, but pale face- an unearthly look. One felt that she was almost a disrobed spirit …”(Mrs. Mary Gove Nichols). Poe’s Spiritual Experience - Poe’s grand attempt and achievement was with his wife. - He experienced the intensest flow, the ecstasies of extreme spiritual love, the sense of unison, the sense of heightening of life. - He tried alcohol, and any drug he could lay his hand on. - Poe had a pretty bitter doom, doomed in a great continuous convulsion of disintegration. - For the human soul must suffer its own disintegration, consciously, if ever it is to survive. II. Poe’s contribution in literature - Poe’s career --- an editor, a poet, a literary critic, and a writer of fiction. - His theories --- influencing French symbolists and the devotees of “art for art’s sake.” - Poe was father of : a. psychoanalytic criticism b. the detective story, setting the standard for modern detective story. Poe modernized American short stories: Gothic tales, crafted symbols, complex characters in deep psychological stat