Edgar Allen Poe's Exploration On Innovation And Subversion Of Tradition

Edgar Allen Poe is an American writer of unique characteristics.Because his composing method and literary theory ran against his time,he was incompatible and unwelcome in the literary circle of his time.Poe had bad reputation until twentieth century things began to change and his works was widely valued by academic circle,especially in Europe and Latin America.Baudelaire, Bemard Shaw and Lawrence highly appraised Poe.Poe'S influence was spread from France to the rest of the world.Till now,researchers studies on Poe from many different ang|es,such ashis psychoanalysis,Gothic writing style,and detective story.Poe is called the master of modem literature,the beginner of short stories,the pioneer of detective stories and science fiction.What'S more,Poe'S aesthetics is very different from others.The thesis mainly focuses on the creative ideas of Poe in the field of literature theory and his innovation of literature pattern as well as the reflection of his theories and ideas in his works.Through relevant illustration and analysis the author intends to point out that Poe,a writer who lived in the 1 9th century has created a valuable fortune which still has great significance for today'S literature.Poe advocated innovation throughout his life.His innovation ranges from writing purposes,literary genre,to many other literary ideas.In his time,the idea of Enlightenment was supported by many writers and poems.The intellectual leaders of this movement regarded themselves as courageous and superior in intellect,and regarded their purpose as leading the world toward progress and out of a long period of doubtful tradition,full of irrationality,superstition,alld tyranny(which they believed began during a historical period they called the"Dark Ages"1.Poe opposed their core idea of rationality.Poe showed his desertion of traditional rationality and his subversion of aestheticism and emphasized on intuition and instinct.In his literary theory his statement about writing purpose has some tinge of aestheticism and his"poetry for poetry"idea and unity of effect theory are clear evidence.There was another school of thought in Poe'S time—transcendentalism which advocates eulogizing the bright side of life and people.Opposite to what transcendentalism described and advocated,Poe held the idea that the ugly side of human psychology should be reflected in literary works.Sole description of bright side of life as transcendentalists advocated is unbalanced.Through Poe'S works like Tell Tale Heart,Black Cat,The Man of the Crowd, William Wilson,we can see his revelation of cruelty,non—rationality,loneliness,split personality,etc. In Poe'S time,science and technology began to develop quickly,and people had great passion for exploitation of the nature.But Poe expressed his doubt and warning to this tren.dPoe believes that excessive dependence on science and technology will lead to materializatio of nature which in the end will lead to dissimilation of human itself.What'S more,blind dependence on science and technology would lead to disaster.This idea still bears great importance todayFrom the above discussion,we can draw the conclusion that Poe is a great writer full of pioneering spirit,his opposition to his contemporary ideologist such as people believed in enlightenment movement and transcendentalism,his profound reflection on blind dependence on science and technology,his irony to absolute order bears great significance.The thesis firstly briefly introduces Poe'S literary achievement,and the First Chapter focuses on his opposition to enlightenment movement which advocate rationality a lot and his emphasis on intuition and instinct.It includes three parts:Poe'S employment of intuition in the exploration of cosmos,Poe'S emphasis on intuition and instinct,psycho—analysis in his detective story,Poe'S writing purpose of writing for truth and beauty.The Second Chapter involves Poe'S disagreement against transcendentalism.We can see his revelation of cruelty, non—rationality,loneliness,split personality,etc.through Poe'S works like Tell Tale Heart, Black Cat,the Man ofthe Crowd.William Wilson.The Third Chapter discusses Poe'S negation of blind worship and dependence of science and technology.In this part,Poe believes that excessive dependence on science and teclmology will lead to materialization of nature which in the end will lead to dissimilation of human itself.The last chapter focuses on Poe'S irony on absolute orderFrom the above discussion,we can draw the conclusion that Poe is a great writer full of pioneering spirit,his opposition to his contemporary ideologist such as people believe in enlightenment movement and transcendentalism,his profound reflection on blind dependence on science and technology bears great significance.