ENG 510 Lecture 6: Lecture 7, Mar 06 & 07: Edgar Allan Poe
Document Summary
Most influential writer in gothic horror literature. He set the basis for the modern detective stories with 4 of his works. His death was very strange found dead in the street in baltimore and no known reason. Poe had a drinking problem, but no drugs outside of what his contemporaries had: he would use drinking to help him get through lecturing and public speaking. However, all of the stories about his dark life and connections between is life and his stories are not all true: griswold wrote poe"s obituary and a memoir that spread stories about poe"s life. His work is marked by irony and self-awareness: he can be really funny, but also really dark and gruesome, characters have a deep level of introspection. The characters try to analyze themselves to try to figure out why they do the things they do. Main themes: the perverse, monomaniacal obsessions, claustrophobic spaces, the haunted house, being buried alive.
