Terror of the Soul-Analysis of Features in Poe’s Gothic Fictions
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Abstract

In the 19th century American Romantic talent Edgar Allan Poe was famous for the peculiarity of both his character and works. Edgar Allan Poe’s importance as a short-story writer may be seen in his pioneering contributions to the genre, in his theory of the tale, in the rich variety, meaning, and significance of his stories, and in their influence on writers the world over. Clearly he has an obsession with the topic of death, as well as an extremely morbid fantastic life. His bizarre tales are the major sources of controversy, calling forth extremes of appreciation as in Paul Valery’s assertion that Poe was “the only impeccable writer”, and of depreciation, as in Emerson’s judgment that “the jingle man”. The paper aims to interpret how does Poe create horror effect deeply in his horror fiction based on the analysis of the background, theme, form and aesthetics of terror, his theories of composition and his philosophy. This thesis also endeavors to analyze the common features of the tales as a whole, and meanwhile probe into the deep meanings of these features. Chapter one is devoted to an introduction about Poe’s life experience and works. Chapter two makes a detailed analysis of the ......



摘 要

美國十九世紀浪漫主義時期的天才作家愛德加愛倫坡以其奇特的人格和作品而聞名。作為一位短篇小說家，坡的重要性體現(xiàn)在他在短篇小說方面的理論，意義以及其重要性的先驅(qū)貢獻。非常清楚，他所著迷的既是極端病態(tài)的夢幻生活，又是死亡的話題。他是爭議最多的美國作家之一，他筆下那些描寫神秘、怪誕的恐怖故事是爭議的最主要來源，并引起了兩種極端的觀點，瓦勒瑞認為他是“唯一一位無可挑剔的作家”，而愛默生則評價他為“叮當作響的人”。本文試圖通過對其創(chuàng)作恐怖小說的背景、主題、表現(xiàn)手法、恐怖美感、創(chuàng)作理論和哲學思想的分析，來解釋坡是如何制造出如此恐怖的效果。本文也力圖分析坡恐怖小說的整體特征并深入發(fā)掘其內(nèi)在含義。論文的第一部分簡要介紹了愛倫坡的身世和他的恐怖小說。第二部分結(jié)合具體的恐怖故事情節(jié)對愛倫坡的死亡主題進行了詳盡的分析，以及愛倫坡對世界文壇的影響和貢獻。愛倫坡悲慘的生活遭遇塑造了他敏感、脆弱的性格，同時導致他在作品中大量涉及死亡這一與當時的美國文壇積極向上的主流趨勢格格不入的主題，使他為許多人所誤解，成為美國文學史上最有爭議的作家之一。在坡的作品中，死亡幾乎無處不在，處處彌漫著瘋狂和死亡的氣息。這是和坡的美學創(chuàng)作原作分不開的。坡一向堅持故事統(tǒng)一的效果對讀者產(chǎn)生的影響力，而死亡就是最能激起讀者反應，從而達到最佳效果的主題。同時，死亡的“丑”在坡筆下成為一種特殊的閱讀快感。死亡毀滅性的力量和人內(nèi)心不可抗拒的死亡本能使故事的主人公生存在極端的困境之中，無論作何努力，幾乎都難逃一死。而等待死亡的過程更是痛苦不堪的。第三部分是論文的總結(jié)，全面概括了坡作品中死亡主題的意義。

關(guān)鍵字：坡；怪誕；恐怖小說；主題；影響


Contents

1. Introduction--------------------------------------------------------------------------1
2. Analysis of Poe’s gothic fictions--------------------------------------------------1
2.1 Poe’s miserable life---------------------------------------------------------------3
2.2Gothic literature--------------------------------------------------------------------3
2.3 A brief introduction to Poe’s theme of death----------------------------------3
2.4 Poe’s aesthetic principles-------------------------------------------------------10
3. Poe’s influence to the world literature------------------------------------------14
3.1 A general view of Poe’s works-------------------------------------------------14
3.2 Poe’s influence on French literature-------------------------------------------16
4. Conclusion-------------------------------------------------------------------------18
References-----------------------------------------------------------------------------20


References
[1] Whitley J. S. Edgar Allan Poe: Tales of Mystery and Imagination [M]. Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Classics, Ltd., 1996.
[2] Poe, E. A. The Letter of Edgar Allan Poe [M]. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1948.