Poe and the psychotic

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Hello, I am a french student. I am working on the 'psychotic' in the writing of Poe through short stories as 'The tell-tale heart', 'The Black Cat' and 'The Imp of the Perverse'. In addition to these readings, I am reading 'The divided self' by R.D.Laing, an English psychiatrist. The class for which I have to do this work is about literature and evil (gothic, science-fiction, fantastic) and deals with all the representations of Hell and Evil through writing, from early gothic (18th century) to modern conception of "hell', alienation. I would like to study the place of 'mind' in poe's writing, the sick mind and schizophrenia related to this notion of 'modern hell'. I'd need some help to build my work and find a way to deal with that subject. I thank you very much.

-- Anonymous, March 17, 2002

Answers

Check out the book "The Life and Works of Edgar Allan Poe: A Psycho- Analytical Interpretation" by Marie Bonaparte (translated by John Rodker with a foreward by Sigmund Freud), 1949, published by Imago Publishing Co. Ltd. I would assume that the original would be in French (excellent for you). This book has been a lot of help with my term paper, discussing how deaths in his life affected his later works.

-- Anonymous, December 06, 2003

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