I NEED a psycological analysis of Edgar Allen Poe for a research paper for 11th grade english class. I only need a little bit of information to add to my paper but I will take almost anything!!! The paper is to be five pages long so don't worry about plagurism...(I WON'T PLAGURIZE!!!) I just need something to prove my thesis. The subject of the paper is basically that Poe wrote Gothic stories because he was a repressed neurotic person with bad tendancies to drink (although he wasn't an alcoholic like many think.) But this paper is due Dec. 7 2001 and I need all the info i can get. It's not easy to find papers, books, and articles on this subject. Please don't e mail the articles etc. to me, just e mail a link.

Thanks A Lot!!!

Adam

-- Anonymous, November 17, 2001

Answers

Actually, Poe wrote gothic stories because there was something of an audience for them. They were very popular in Blackwoods. Poe also wrote other kinds of stories, including humorous ones. Interestingly, we only seem to read the gothic ones today. What does that say about us?

-- Anonymous, November 20, 2001

Adam,

It is difficult not to completely concur with the above answer. Your thesis statement is fundamentally flawed because there is no causal link between the kind of mental illnesses you are suggesting and artistic endeavour. Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein without being an alcoholic. And there are plenty of alcoholics who produce no literature at all.

If you wish to undertake this style of psychological analysis (and I am not convinced it is worthwhile, but there you go) you have to work the other way round. You cannot start by diagnosing Poe and thus explain his work. You have to start with the work and by closely inspecting it diagnose Poe.

This style of criticism was mostly carried out by psychoanalytic critics, of whom Marie Bonaparte was the leading exponent. If you can track down a copy, her Edgar Allan Poe: A Psycho-Analytic Study (1949, French: 1933) is interesting, if slightly loopy. The American critic, Joseph Wood Krutch, also carried out similar studies in the 1920s.

eapoe.org has a page devoted to a bibliography of psychological studies, most of which are very difficult to track down. But if you have access to a good university library you should be able to read the major ones (Bonaparte and Krutch should be there).

If you want my advice (and you may not want my advice) try psychologically studying a couple of Poe's characters. It will be much easier, much more productive and much more liable to lead to a good grade.

-- Anonymous, November 20, 2001

ok, My thesis is now not why he ONLY wrote Gothic stories etc. but why he wrote them at all.......I cited Krutch in my paper once for saying that Poe's gothic works were a manifestation of a dark neurosis. so if there is ANY thing that will help on this new thesis paper, i would surely appreciate if you helped me get it.

Thanks, Adam

-- Anonymous, November 21, 2001

Adam,

There is very little on the web which can help you with this project because, as I am sure you are aware, it is unfashionable among academics at the moment. The fact that you have had to go back nearly eighty years to cite Krutch should be proof of this.

Nonetheless, since you wish to proceed with this your first port-of- call should be Kenneth Silverman's psychoanalytic biography of Poe, Edgar A. Poe: Mounnful and Never-ending Remembrance (1991). Here you will find lots of links between Poe's childhood and his literary works. Just use the index to pick out a few tales you wish to focus on and see what Silverman has to say.

I would recommend treating Silverman with a little caution and if something seems too far fetched, it probably is.

Anyway, good luck, and if you get stuck I can try and help if you e- mail me.

-- Anonymous, November 22, 2001

Dear adam

I could suggest you to give a slightly twist to your paper. Why don't you try to analyse the structure of a text of Eddy (and not analysing Poe himself) and to link it with the human psychological structure? See Jacques Lacan's seminary about "The Purloined Letter". So try to escape from that easy way of thinking of the "psycho- biography"! Extrude yourself out of your soft seat and listen in an active way to the prose & poems of a genius. Yours sincerely Will

-- Anonymous, November 23, 2001

True Necromancer or pseudo-shrink??

Blah, blah, blah

What is the link between gothic & neurotic? The FOUR LAST LETTERS; no less, no more.

Blabber.

originally established in century gothic font

-- Anonymous, November 23, 2001

Dear Adam,

Do NOT "think" or "need" as you wrote too many times! Just READ & LISTEN to the answers kindly given by the others on LUSENET. Yours sincerely Will

-- Anonymous, November 26, 2001

how much wish influence in the life of human?

-- Anonymous, March 06, 2002

poe loved the dead girls. you know what they say, "dead girls can't say no!"

-- Anonymous, May 11, 2004