What would a thesis be that applies to all of Poe's works?greenspun.com : LUSENET : The Work of Edgar Allan Poe : One Thread |
what would be the thesis, if there were one, that seems to apply to all the works of Poe?
-- Anonymous, February 13, 2002
A godlike request. Try Poe's own essays on his art at www.eapoe.org. Depends on the perspective. The fidelity and skill of expressing beauty and feelings the most strongly and most deeply suggestive to the human heart connected with it. Therefore all the artistry expresses that unified effect, heart of the poet. From there it splits into Poe's personal themes and the divisions in his own life and psychology almost into a constant duality of dancing contradictions from which the creation is born. Oddly, his detective Dupin gives the most accurate spread of his thinking regarding the creative process as it relates to art and the world. I am not satisfied that that is the best and only thesis but I suppose you want something. Try reading a variety of articles, pro and con Poe, to get a feel for the divisiveness that Poe creates among critics as opposed to the single, rather spare effects he successfully creates. A startling ambiguity in all his resolutions?
-- Anonymous, February 15, 2002