《Gothicism in Edgar Allan Poe's Short Stories 埃德加·爱伦·坡短篇小说中的哥特风格》由会员分享，可在线阅读，更多相关《Gothicism in Edgar Allan Poe's Short Stories 埃德加·爱伦·坡短篇小说中的哥特风格（59页珍藏版）》请在金锄头文库上搜索。
1、Gothicism in Edgar Allan Poes Short Stories埃德加愛伦坡短篇小说中的哥特风格AbstractThis paper is devoted to the condensed study of Gothicism in Poes four short classics, The Masque of the Red Death, The Black Cat, The fit and the Pendulum, and The Fall of the House of Usher. Despite Poes seemingly inheritance from
2、some literary forebears, his contriburion and innovation for the literary subgenre is profound and significant.The origin term of Gothic can be traced back to Goth, the notorious barbarous people of an old Germanic tribe. Gothicism develops gradually to indicate a grotesque style in architecture pre
3、vailing in the Middle Ages of Europe and later it is used in literature to convey the idea of Dark Romanticism that is excluded by the Ciassidsts from the mainstream of the literatus, Gothic literature starts from the eighteenth century in England, and gradually forms a special school in literary wo
4、rld. Among the numerous celebrated Gothic classics, Edgar Allan Poes fiction remains the most grotesque and unique.Compared to the other Gothic writers, Poe deepens the connotation of Gothic by exploring the themes of death, guilt, revenge, incest and morbid psyche as well as the supernatural myster
5、y in these tales. Poe intends to psychologize the Gothic and has commenced to modify the traditional Gothic relationship, in which the direction of horrifying averts from outside to inside, from setting to self. The character are more likely creative originator of the terrifying rather than passive
6、victims or witnesses of their appalling plight, while the circumstances are merely the products of their imaginative mind. It is with Poe that the old Gemian Gothic is finally brought into thecontemporary setting. Darker and gloomier than the eighteenth century Gothic, Poes performance for novelty i
7、n composition for the theme of Death achieves the uniqueness of his Gothic stories and the sole effect of terror that comes not from Germany, but from the soul.Key words: Gothicism Theme of Death Gothic Writing TechniqueGothicism in Edgar Allan Poes Short Stories IntroductionGothicism is, in essence
8、, an eerier and grotesque style of architecture emerging from the Middle Ages in Europe, which is disgusted and scorned by the so-called rational classicists. According to on-line dictionary, it is defined as the use or imitation of Gothic style, as in architecture; a barbarous or crude manner or st
9、yle/ Gothic made its appearance in literature initiated by Horace Walpole with the publishing of his first Gothic novel The Castle of Otranto (1764). In the context of Romanticism, Literary Gothicism is defined as a type of imitative medievalism. When it was launched in the later eighteenth century,
10、 Gothicism featured accounts of terrifying experiences in ancient castles 一 experiences connected with subterranean dungeons, secret passageways, flickering lamps, screams, moans, bloody hands, ghosts, graveyards, and the rest. By extension, it came to designate the macabre, mysterious, fantastic, s
11、upernatural, and the terrifying, especially the pleasurably terrifying, which is more general in literature.One of the greatest masters for Gothic literature should be Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), and it would be difficult to overestimate his contribution and influence on the development of Gothic l
12、iterature (Punter 155), although the most controversial criticism has been passed on his works as well as his person. Absolutely it is a pity that most of Poes fellowmen, especially those who were in his time, failed to realize his value or appreciate his genius, while what is worse is that he has b
13、een blasphemed with the most spiteful vilification, in any cases, and got no fair judgments long after his death. Reverend Rufus Griswold, whom he had the unfortunate idea of appointing his literary executor, branded him a perverse neurotic, a drunkard and drug addict who walked the streets, in madn
14、ess or melancholy, with lips moving in indistinct curses. (Clarke I 41) Emerson looked down upon him as a jingle man who could only shake his bells and called their sound poetry. Mark Twain condemned his work unreadable, and even Henry James, the conspicuous American modernist writer, claimed that a
15、n enthusiasm for Poe (was) the mark of decidedly primitive stage of reflection. (Chang 146) While it is awfully strange that in European countries (and among a small portion of Americans), Poe has won the respect and admiration no less tough in degree than the misunderstanding or inveigh he has been
16、 opposed at home. For Baudelaire, he was a fallen angel who remembered heaven, a Byron gone astray in a bad world. (Clarke 141) Yeats sang high praise for him, regarding him as so certainly the greatest of American poets, and always, for all lands, a great lyric poet. (Clarke I 41) George Bernard Shaw found him exquisitely refined and William Carlos Williams, one of the few Americans who spoke for Poe, proclaimed that it is Poe tha
