Calculation in Poe's Art

Paper Summary:

This paper considers the calculation in Poe's art, both in his poetry and in his fiction. The paper examines the calculation in terms of rationalism being imposed on Romantic literature and looks at how Poe takes the Gothic genre, which is characterized by feeling, and aspires towards a calculated effect instead. The paper relates that by doing this, Poe reinvents the genre and makes it much more powerful. The poem "The Raven", and the short stories "The Fall of the House of Usher" and "The Tell-Tale Heart", are examined in order to illustrate the paper's point.

From the Paper:

"He made the greatest impact on literature, both in America and abroad, through his short stories. If the novel was the key invention of the 18th century, then the key literary invention of the 19th century was the short story, and it was Poe who finally perfected the medium. According to Poe's definition, the short story is a piece of fiction entirely calculated for the effect on the reader at the denouement. Before this point nobody had written short fiction under such strict measures, and in the process of composing his short stories Poe was laying down the outlines for the genre that were to become the norm. The principal guideline that Poe stressed was the "unity of effect or impression" (Essays, 571). The Fall of the House of Usher is a perfect example. Poe was impatient with the use of metaphor in literature, but he cannot avoid it, because the fall which the story describes is a metaphorical fall of the Usher dynasty. "

Sample of Sources Used:

• Eoyang, Eugene Chen. "Borrowed Plumage": Polemical Essays on Translation. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2003.
• Huxley, Aldous. "Vulgarity in Literature," in Poe: A Collection of Critical Essays. Ed. Robert Regan, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall Inc., 1967.
• Paul, Robert S. Whatever Happened to Sherlock Holmes: Detective Fiction, Popular Theology and Society. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1991.
• Poe, Edgar Allan. Essays and Reviews. Ed. Gary Richard Thompson. New York, NY: Library of America, 1984.
• Poe, Edgar Allan. The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Writings: Poems, Tales, Essays, and Reviews. Ed. David Galloway. New York: Penguin Classics, 2003.

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• Analytical Essay # 120775 : "Inevitability of Death in Poe's Works"

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