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American Literature: Romanticism research assignment Student Research Submissions 2015 Research Post 2 |
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Carol
May 7, 2015
Let’s Have Mo’ of Poe
Edgar Allan Poe’s works have been a source of mystery and delight to so many for
so long, and it wasn’t until this question was posed during class that I ever
gave him a second thought. We were asked to think about just what makes his
works so universally read, loved, analyzed, studied and revered for so long. I’m
sure I can’t remember when it was I first read any of his works, probably in
high school, but I can’t remember which works were offered for study. Then we
read a little more of him in undergraduate literature classes. Coursing along in
time, I remember listening to a recitation of “The Bells” while judging at a
high school UIL academic meet and thinking, “This is Poe??” Finally came
exposure to works such as “Ligeia” and “The Man that Was Used Up,” works that I
had not studied before this year. Poe’s topics cover a multitude of subjects and
themes; how or why does this make his works so timeless and universally popular?
What I found was a litany of information about Poe’s works that cover a
multitude of far-reaching facts about the iconic nature of his labors. An NFL
football team is named after his best-known work: The Baltimore Ravens.
Musicians create tribute to his works: Rachmaninov composing “The Bells,” Joan
Baez, Iron Maiden, and Iggy Pop recording interpretations of his work, his face
graces the cover of the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper album cover. The Simpson’s
television show recites “The Raven” for its Halloween episode. Soap Operas
(“Dark Shadows”) have based shows on Poe’s short stories. “The”Munsters," a 60’s
sitcom, featured a clock which, instead of a cuckoo, had a raven which announced
the hour by saying, “nevermore.” Not only do his works remain popular but also
the aura surrounding him with which people want to identify. His works remain so
universally popular because they span a range of human emotions: joy, passion,
hope, rage, despair, and fear. What best sums up this
statement is that what makes him so popular is his appeal to the masses: the
purpose of reading Poe is not to understand the writer, but to understand the
reader who is left to his own interpretation of what Poe is saying to him.1
Continuing with the question of Poe’s universal appeal, the second article
states that “Poe has become part of our ‘cultural furniture’” in that he is
arguably the US’s first writer of international importance. His stories’
timeless appeal has had a profound influence on literature music, film, and art.
“The Fall of the House of Usher” has been filmed more than a dozen times. His
focus on death, madness, and lost love caters to the reasoning that all of us
are subject to these things happening to us; that madness could be just around
the corner and death awaits us all. He encourages our fear of the dark and knows
that “hell lies within; that we are guilty, and death comes to us all.”
He touches our innermost being with fear and forensic evidence and is
perhaps the founding father of crime fiction.2
So why are his works so continually read and reviewed by readers?
Why does the macabre appeal to such a wide range of readers and why do we
like to be scared? The answer lies in human nature, the fear of the unknown, and
the theory of the sublime in that what is dangerous can be at the same time
alluring. According to Poulet, in Poe and other romantics “the idea of eternity
possessed by man appears in one form or another again and again” (20).
Poe is another one of those authors who
we read again and again, and with each reading we find something new. Even those
who do not care for his works still respond to them with a degree of intensity
and sincere appreciation. This would be an interesting topic to pursue further
and would enter the realm of the psychological attraction of the macabre and why
readers return to it again and again.
Poulet, Georges. "Timelessness and Romanticism." Journal of the History of
Ideas (University of Pennsylvania Press), 1954: 3-22.
1http://www.eapoe.org/geninfo/poesfame.htm
2http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2009/jan/19/edgar-allan-poe-bicentenary
White, Craig. LITR 5731 American Immigrant Literature Syllabus Course
Objectives.
http://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/LITR/5731im
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