Metamorphosis Out Of Darkness

Edgar Allen Poe. the detective inventor, the Gothic writer, as well as the most unfortunate poet in the history of American literature, has combined his singular and far-reaching aesthetic concept with his story and poem writings. As a successor of Gothic storyteller, he has inherited the usual Gothic aesthetic values of terror and mysticism as an approach of exploiting the dark side of human psyche. However, he is also more than a successor. His Gothic tales give out new shining sparkles, which are closely related to his aesthetic values. The aesthetic features, which are essential in his literary philosophy, will be discussed from the following four aspects, the aesthetics of ambivalence, the aesthetics of architecture and decoration, the aesthetics of sound, and the aesthetics of poetics. The typical Gothic features in his tales, which are terror, mystery and eeriness, will be unveiled from these four angles.The study on the aesthetics of ambivalence will start from the ambivalent elements which are prominent in Poe’s Gothic tales, such as the setting, the narrative method, and his ambivalent attitude toward life and death. In this discussion, a pivotal idea of the universe will be imported to analyze the dualism in Poe’s Gothic tales. His philosophy on the universe affects not only his view on life, but also his literary theory and creation. Beside the philosophical approach, the discussion will also take the historical background and Poe’s biography into consideration.The aesthetics of architecture and decoration will begin from the Gothists’traditional fanaticism on architectural form. The analysis will be undertaken through text study. Poe’s erudite knowledge on architecture and decoration will also be examined.The aesthetics of sound is an indispensible part in this discussion. The sound involves two aspects, the musical sound and the noisy sound. The musical sound mainly comes from the character’s voice and the instrument. Its aesthetic effect is to create mysticism and sublimity. The chaotic sound, which comes from various natural or supernatural ways, is an effective media to intensify the tension.The aesthetics of poetics will connect Poe’s poetic gift with his story writing. From biographical view, we will build a bridge between Poe’s poetic sentiment and his Gothic writings. The reason for the popularity of his Gothic tales will be discovered in this part. This chapter will mainly analyze Poe’s application of poetic composition in Gothic writing. In this way, his Gothic tales gains the approval of the readers by its breath-taking plot and the refined and elegant language. The protagonists under Poe’s skillful moudling also become classic characters among all the Gothic pieces.