somebody help me find the unswer to how 'structuralist emphasis on language and structure contributes to the understanding of the narrative and cultural dimensions in the purloined letter', please.

thank you.

-- Anonymous, May 05, 2002

Answers

First this sentence is too complex, adding needlessly difficult complexities with conjunctions like some slow moving locomtive dragging a thousand freight cars uphill. Just a structural critique. Even more cruel, Poe himself has made the densest philosophical ruminations an integral part of the "mystery", which is so easily and quickly solved only the reasoning process carries suspense.

A good article on the Purloined Letter can be found at www.eapoe.org in the Por Studies section. So wearily, you must be clear what the terms of the question are, what the simpler ideas of Poe are, and then somehow reconcile them to please the modern needs of your teacher.

Simply, in the story private eye Dupin explains his method of finding a letter "hidden in plain sight" by getting into the mind of the criminal. He compares that to the predictably thorough police method which is unable to solve the problem in the direct way. In this sense, the poetic genius takes a short cut through empathic identification and intuitive logic, while the police are doomed to fail.

The plot is sparse but the reasoning is complex and detailed. But for Dupin the solution then becomes easy while for the police, the easy method and quick action tails off into hours of useless searching.

How the unusual mind moves through the world where the many with the most power are rigid in their actions and limited in their minds. And get nowhwere, as one well might in the tangled webs of the post-constructionist lacunae.

If you need me to help with this answer I am afraid you will have to write me as to how to deal with this irritating structuralist question.

-- Anonymous, May 06, 2002