• 很久很久以前， 在一个滨海的国度里， 住着一位少女你或许认得， 她的芳名叫安娜贝尔.李； 这少女活着没有别的愿望， 只为和我俩情相许。 • 那会儿我还是个孩子，她也未脱稚气， 在这个滨海的国度里； 可我们的爱超越一切，无人能及—— 我和我的安娜贝尔.李； 我们爱得那样深，连天上的六翼天使 也把我和她妒嫉。
• 柯南道尔：“一名侦探小说家只能沿这条不宽 的主道而行，所以他时时都会发现前方有坡的 脚印。如果他偶尔能设法偏离主道，独辟蹊径，超 越他，有人会试图发展他的风格，但许多自以 为已经超过他的人其实永远也不可能与他相提 并论。”
• Famous American poet, short-story writer, and literary critic • Most controversial and misunderstood in America • Well received in Europe, England, Spain, esp. in France • Literary output: some seventy short stories and a dozen poems • A: Poems • B: Short stories • C: literary theory • D: one full-length novel: The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym (1838)
• Whitman: admit Poe’s genius, but it was “its narrow range and unhealthy, lurid quality” (terrible) • T. S. Eliot: a critic of the first rank, but with “slipshod writing” (careless)
insists on an even(规则的) metrical flow
Themes
1. death – predominant theme
“Poe is not interested in anything alive. Everything in Poe’s writings is dead.”
In Europe
• George Bernard Shaw: “the greatest journalistic critic of his time” • His poetry is “exquisitely refined”. • His tales are “complete works of art”. • Baudelaire 波 德 莱 尔 ; 查 尔 斯 · 皮埃尔: “Edgar Poe, who isn’t much in America, must become a great man in France.”
• The angels, not half so happy in heaven, Went envying her and meYes!–that was the reason (as all men know, In this kingdom by the sea) That the wind came out of the cloud by night, Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.
Comments on Poe
• Edgar Allan Poe is the most controversial and the most misunderstood literary figure in the history of American literature. • “ 我不在乎我的作品是 现在被人读还是由子孙 后代来读。我可以花一 个世纪来等待读者。”
This daguerreotype of Poe was taken in 1848 when he was 39, a year before his death
Life Experience
a miserable childhood
entered the University but didn’t finish went to West Point but was dismissed at 27 he married his 13-year-old cousin was adopted by John Allan an unhappy relationship died in mysterious circumstances, in 1849
《亚瑟.戈登.皮姆的故事》
Part III. Major Works
Poems
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
made Poe famous as a poet
The Raven (1844) 《渡鸦》 symbol of his dark doubts Annabel Lee 《安娜贝尔丽》 and frustrated longing The Sleeper 《睡美人》 “Nevermore”永不再 A Dream Within a Dream 《梦中梦》 Israfel 《伊斯拉菲尔》 The Bells 《钟》 Sonnet – To Science 《十四行诗--致科学》 To Helen 《献给海伦》 The City in the Sea 《海中的城市》
In America
• Emerson: “the jingle man” (noisy) • Mark Twain: His prose is unreadable. • Henry James: “an enthusiasm for Poe is the mark of a decidedly primitive state of development”
Edgar Allan Poe 埃德加爱伦坡 (1809—1849)
Edgar Allan Poe
（1809—1849）
• • • • • •
Part Part Part Part Part Part
I. Life Experience II Literary Position III. Major Works IV. Point of View V. Style VI. Appreciation
literary theory
• The Poetic Principle <诗歌原理> • The Philosophy of Composition • Review of Twice-Told Tales
评霍桑的<故事重述>
<创作哲学>
Poe’s theory for poetry
poems short but achieve maximum effect produce a feeling of beauty in the reader "pure“, not to moralize He stresses rhythm 真实能够满足人的理智, 感情能够满足人的心灵, 而美则能激动人的灵魂
• And this was the reason that, long ago, In this kingdom by the sea, A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling My beautiful Annabel Lee; So that her highborn kinsman came And bore her away from me, To shut her up in a sepulchre In this kingdom by the sea.
her death in 1847 left him a bitterer life
Part II. Poe’s literary position
– Forerunner of western decadent literature – Forerunner of aesthetic literature – Explorer of abnormal psychology – Father of psychoanalytic criticism – Path-breaker of American detective novel – Father of modern short story
His position
Poe’s position in world literature is secure. His influence is world-wide in modern literature. His aesthetics and conscious craftsmanship, his attack on “the heresy of the didactic” and his call for “the rhythmical creation of beauty” have influenced French symbolism and the devotees of “art for art’s sake”. Poe is father of many things, one of which is psychoanalytic criticism, the other being the detective story.
Reasons for Misunderstanding
• 1) As a perceptive critic, he wrote some scathing criticisms on distinguished literary figures. • 2) His literary executor sullied his reputation after his death.
2. horror 3.negative thoughts of science