CONTENTS
Acknowledgements i
Abstract ii
摘要 iii
1 Introduction 1
2 The Brief Introduction of Edgar Allan Poe 3
2.1 Poe’s Life Experience and Its Influence on His Writings 3
2.2 Classification of Poe’s Works 4
3. Gothicism 5
3.1 Definition of the “Gothic” 5
3.2 Traditional Gothicism in English Literature 6
3.3 Edgar Allan Poe and American Gothic Literature 8
4 Gothic Elements in The Fall of the House of Usher 9
4.1 Brief Introduction of The Fall of the House of Usher 9
4.2 Gothic Elements Based on The Fall of the House of Usher 10
4.2.1 Poe’s “Effect Theory”---the unity of terrifying effect 10
4.2.2 Environmental Gothicism 11
4.2.3 Psychological Gothicism---the fears of soul 13
5 Conclusion 16
Bibliography 17
Acknowledgements
I would like to express my sincere thanks to my supervisor, Doc. Chen Qinghua for his patient guidance and encouragement. He always points out my mistakes in my paper carefully and kindly. It is only with his help that I can smoothly finish my graduate paper.
What’s more, I also appreciate the support and encouragement from my parents. During the period of writing my graduate paper, they also support me with both material and spiritual help.
Last but not least, I extend my sincere thanks to all the teachers in the College of Foreign Languages. They are Chen Jiaxu, Prof. Zhongling, Doc. Yan Ming, etc, from whose excellent and instructive lectures I have benefit a lot in the writing of this thesis.
Abstract Edgar Allan Poe is a famous poet, novelist and literary critic in the 19th century. He was known as the ancestor of psychological novels, detective stories and science fiction. Poe was noticed and criticized for his tales of mystery, the macabre plot and pessimistic ideas by many readers and critics. “Effect” is indeed a keyword in Poe’s theoretical work as a whole. It recurs throughout his critical writings. In the creation of novel, Allan Poe emphasizes that the writer should withhold the readers’ chord through with a variety of realistic techniques, and then finally the novel can produce its presupposed and desired effect. According to Poe, the artistic beauty is just only an effect while the only thing the artist should do is just to bring a strong shock to the reader’s mind, and uplift their soul by his artistic creation. In Poe’s view, “sadness” and “melancholy” are the best words that embody the keynote of beauty. However, the combination of death and beauty, undoubtedly, is the most poetic and picturesque topic. Edgar Allan Poe, as the pioneering gothic novelist he, is remarkably adept at portraying the psychological mind of characters and highlighting the theme of moral exploration and human conflict. The Fall of the House of Usher is one of Poe’s excellent and typical short stories. It not only depicts the depressive and decaying scene, but also creates a suffocating sense of oppressing and wired air of mystery which not only makes the reader feel as if he has gone through the experience personally but also reveals the theme of story. This paper will take The Fall of the House of Usher as an example to analyze the characteristics of the gothic style in the Poe’s novel creation.
Key words: Edgar Allan Poe, Gothic Style, The Fall House of Usher