一部种族关系的寓言：埃德加·爱伦·坡《莫格街凶杀案》的文本与语境.pdfVIP

Abstract Abstract EdgarAllan Poe is one of the earliestAmerican practitioners of the short story, and is generally considered to be the inventor of the detective story. For most of the twentieth century,thepredominant view ofPoe isthathe is awriter with little interest inthepolitical andsocialissuesofhistime.However,inrecentyears, somescholarshavebeen arguingthat instead of being apolitical, Poe is a writer engaged in the politics of his day, especially the issuesofslavery. TheMurders intheRueMorgue,published in 1841,wasrecognized asthe firstmodern detective story.Ittellsthe storyofthebaffling doublemurders ofMadameLEspanaye and her daughterintheRueMorgue,afictionalstreetinParis.Throughthe fantasticanalysisof detective Dupin, the murderer turned out to be a runaway orangutan who used a barber’s razor to kill the mother and the daughter. Ever since its publication, scholars have been devoted to the study of Dupin’s analytic power. However, this thesis tends to reveal the implicit political theme hidden in the short story, the issue of slavery and a black slave’s rebellionagainstthewhites. Therearefivechaptersinthisthesis.ChapteroneintroducesthelifeandworksofEdgar Allan Poe, reviews criticism at home and abroad, and outlines the structure of the thesis. Chapter two studies Poe in the context of race and slavery.His sympathy for slave-holding tradition,the averageracism strategyinMessenger where Poeworked inandracialconflicts andsociallifeofantebellumPhiladelphiainfluencedPoe’sattitudestowardstheissueofrace and slavery to a large extent. Chapter three conducts a thorough analysis of the murderer orangutan.For onething, the fact that the blacks were biologically similarwith apesmakes readers connect the orangutan with a black slave easily. For another, suffering from cruel treatmentofitsmasterprovestheorangutantobe ablack salve,