Poe's Aesthetic Perspectives Of Beauty In Art, Life And Death

Edgar Allan Poe is one of the most unique writers in America. As his creative techniques and literary theories are totally different from the main stream in the field of literature in his time, Poe had been misunderstood by readers and his contemporaries for quite a long time. It was until the 20th century that the importance of Poe's literary creations had been recognized extensively by the academic world. Although Poe could not be accepted in America, he received overwhelming welcome in Europe and Latin America. Baudelaire, Swinburne, Bernard Shaw, D. H. Lawrence and W. H. Auden all admired and spoke highly of him. Poe's great influence spread all over the world from France. There have appeared many Poe experts. This craze for Poe is also reflected in China. His tales and poems have been continuously translated into Chinese and introduced in China, and many Chinese writers are influenced by him in different aspects. Nowadays, Poe has been worldly recognized as the precursor of modernistic writings, originator of the short stories, forerunner of psychoanalytic criticism and father of modern detective stories.Poe's aesthetic perspectives are quite special, and different from his contemporaries. This thesis tries to find out the significance and great influence of Poe's aesthetic perspectives in his literary works through a thorough analysis of his poetry and tales and of his social and personal backgrounds for his aesthetic perspectives.At the beginning part, the thesis gives a brief introduction to Poe and literary reviews on him. His main aesthetic perspectives are briefly generalized in this part. Next, the thesis probes into the aesthetic perspectives exhibited in Poe's poetry and the ways he uses to create beauty in his poems. Poe's features of aestheticism are quite obvious in his poetry. His "pure poetry" theory and emphasis on "unity and totality" are the proof. In order to create the beauty and unity in poetry, Poe makes use of several ways, such as imagination, innovation of forms and musicality. These methods are very well experimented in Poe's works.In the third part of the thesis, the aesthetic perspectives exhibited in Poe's tales are discussed. It elaborates on the weird characters, the motif of death and the mystery of death, and tries to figure out the mystery, uncanniness and mobidness in Poe's tales andthe expressions of his aesthetic perspectives in these tales.Poe's personal life and cultural background are introduced in the next part. The thesis analyzes the social influence on Poe's aesthetic perspectives and on his works. It also generalizes the world outlook of Poe's in his "Eureka" and tries to find out the expressions of Poe's outlook in his death tales and horror fictions and the significance of them. In the end, the thesis illustrates the significance of Poe's aesthetic perspectives and their influences.Based on the above discussions, the thesis arrives at the conclusion that Poe's aesthetic perspectives are unique and this makes his works have an irresistible attraction. His special attitude towards beauty has influenced a large group of writers and literary schools. Although it seems that his views do not suit his time, the reasons and social factors can be found in his works. Poe's literary creation and aesthetic perspectives do not come out from nothing. His views on society and beauty have important social significance.