Edgar Allan Poe, Verbal Labyrinth,

Intellectual Exercise, and

Sublime Beauty

An Introduction

By Yuyen Chang

Edgar Allan Poe photo by by W.S. Hartshorn .

Rationale of Course Design: 1-2

• Section 1: Kick off the concern related to epistemology and aesthetics (A Beautiful Mind!) Essay 1

• Section 2: Rethink the foundation and revolution in science and the body of knowledge Essay 2

Rationale of Course Design: Part Three--Literature

• Edgar Allan Poe: life, short story, and poem

• Main concern: the connection between intellectual exercise and aesthetic appreciation

• Week 8, 9, 10

Rationale of Course Design: 4 & 5

• 4 medical lessons of history/ a dialogue

• 5 reflections and preparation for term paper (oral and written)

http://www.pambytes.com/poe/poe.html

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)• American writer, known as a poet and

critic but most famous as the first master of the short-story form, especially tales of the mysterious and macabre.

• The literary merits of Poe's writings have been debated since his death, but his works have remained popular and many major American and European writers have professed their artistic debt to him.

Bringing-up• Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Poe was

orphaned in his early childhood and was raised by John Allan, a successful businessman of Richmond, Virginia.

• Taken by the Allan family to England at the age of six, Poe was placed in a private school. Upon returning to the United States in 1820, he continued to study in private schools.

• He attended the University of Virginia for a year, but in 1827 his foster father, displeased by the young man's drinking and gambling, refused to pay his debts and forced him to work as a clerk.

Poetry and EssaysAmong Poe's poetic output,

about a dozen poems are remarkable for their flawless literary construction and for their haunting themes and meters. In “The Raven” (1845), for example, the narrator is overwhelmed by melancholy and omens of death.

The Bells and Other Poems by Edgar Allan Poe (1912)

Poe’s Poetics

• Poe consistently placed emphasis on (1) the unity of effect, (2) his rejection of allegory and didacticism, (3) the narrative poem being a non-poem, (4) the shortened length of a work of art, (5) the appeal to the emotions, (6) the ideal subject matter for art, and (7) the importance of emotional responses.

Stories• Poe, by his own choice, was a

poet, but economic necessity forced him to turn to the relatively profitable genre of prose.

• Whether or not Poe invented the short story, it is certain that he originated the novel of detection.

The Raven illustration © J.B. Bonivert

his best-known tales• “The Gold Bug” (1843), about a

search for buried treasure.“The Murders in the Rue Morgue”

(1841), “The Mystery of Marie Rogêt” (1842-

1843),“The Purloined Letter” (1844) are regarded as predecessors of the

modern mystery, or detective, story

Genres: Gothic and Detective stories

• Edgar Allen Poe was the creator of the American gothic tale and detective fiction genre, and was a noted poet and critic.

the setting for which was usually a ruined Gothic castle or abbey.

emphasized mystery and horror and was filled with ghost-haunted rooms, underground passages, and secret stairways.

Tales of Ratiocination

•These basics of a tale of ratiocination are: (1) brilliant amateur sleuth; (2) the sidekick, or the worker for the clever detective; (3) the simple clues; (4) the stupidity of the police; (5) the resentment of the police for the amateur's interference; and (6) the simple but careful solution of the problem through logic and intuition.

Recommendations• “The Fall of the House of Usher”

(1839), in which the penetrating gloominess of the atmosphere is accented equally with plot and characterization;

• “The Pit and the Pendulum” (1842), a spine-tingling tale of cruelty and torture;

• “The Tell-Tale Heart” (1843), in which a maniacal murderer is subconsciously haunted into confessing his guilt;

• and “The Cask of Amontillado” (1846), an eerie tale of revenge.

Sonnet to Science

Science! True daughter of Old Time thou art!

Who alterest all things with thy peering eyes.

Why preyest thou thus upon the poet's heart,

Vulture, whose wings are dull realities?

How should he love thee? or how deem thee wise,

Who wouldst not leave him in his wanderingTo seek for treasure in the jewelled skies,Albeit he soared with an undaunted wing?Hast thou not dragged Diana from her car?And driven the Hamadryad from the wood

To seek a shelter in some happier star?Hast thou not torn the Naiad from her flood,The Elfin from the green grass, and from me

The summer dream beneath the tamarind tree?

A Tale of the Ragged Mountains

A thematic approach

mesmerism• This is one of three of Poe's tales

that deal with mesmerism, an increasingly common practice of the early nineteenth century.

• This tale evolves around a young gentleman of Virginia, who has developed a rapport, a dependent relationship centered on mesmerism, with a physician who had been converted to the practices of Mesmer. mesmerism

science and medicine• Poe's interest in issues of science and

medicine are well known to his readers. He produced three prose pieces which focused on the animal magnetism theory developed by Franz Anton Mesmer, which eventually led to the development of hypnotism.

• The other two Poe mesmerism pieces are "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" and "Mesmerism Revelation." They are useful to review the impressions created by the newly revealed practices of mesmerism as a therapeutic modality, generally considered in the 19th century as a form of "quackery."

"quackery”

• The acts, arts, or boastful pretensions of a quack; false pretensions to any art; empiricism.

• Deliberate misrepresentation of the ability of a substance or device for the prevention or treatment of disease.

   The singularities of the protagonist. (Augustus Bedloe)

The feline images.

• Black CAT

Bedloe and Oldbeb.

• AnagramAnagram = a word or phrase made by transposing the letters of another word or phrase

• Metamorphosis Metamorphosis = a : change of physical form, structure, or substance especially by supernatural means b : a striking alteration in appearance, character, or circumstances

the narrator and Dr. Templeton.

the medical practice

• One day, after taking his usual morning dose of morphine, the gentleman leaves for his daily walk in the Ragged Mountains. He returns with the tale of a bizarre foreign encounter in which he dies from a snake bite to the temple.

• Science and imagination

The Ragged Mountains

Dream and vision

•Melancholic effect•Reality and fantasy

Death and sublime beauty

• As the "dead" man tells his tale, the doctor confirms that it was not a dream despite the fact that the subject seems quite alive. Within a few days the gentleman is dead, presumably because of the accidental application to his temple of a poisonous leech. The twist at the end of the tale, which includes allusion to reincarnation, will not be revealed here.