Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Short stories (Poe, Edgar Allan)'

The object of this research project is to carry out a literary analysis of the contrast and similarities between the treatment of female portraits presented in some of Edgar Allan Poe’s and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short stories, and further to illustrate the effect this treatment has on the whole thematic and socio-cultural articulation of these narratives. For this purpose the following short stories have been chosen: by Edgar Allan Poe; “Morella” (1835), “Eleonora” (1841), and “Ligeia” (1838), by Nathaniel Hawthorne; “Mrs Bullfrog” (1837) “The Wedding Knell” (1836), and “The Birthmark” (1843). Each of the selected stories has been a contribution to better understand the socio-cultural situation women during the time they were composed.

Orientador: Maria Clara Benotti Paro
Banca: Carlos Daghlian
Banca: Maria Lúcia Milléo Martins
Banca: Sylvia Helena Telarolli de Almeida Leite
Banca: Luiz Gonzaga Marchezan
Resumo: Esta tese tem por objetivo o estudo de seis contos - A esfinge, Uma estória de Jerusalém, O diabo no campanário, Mistificação, Os óculos e Pequena conversa com uma múmia - do ficcionista, poeta e crítico norte-americano Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), mundialmente conhecido como o pai do conto moderno, a fim de analisar o modo como o autor constrói o humor e a sátira e em que medida eles constituem uma sátira ambivalente ao seu meio social. As análises revelam a existência de um compromisso do autor com a sociedade do seu tempo, que se manifesta na criação ficcional pelo viés satírico e crítico aos exageros da ideologia norte-americana do século XIX.
Abstract: This dissertation aims to study six short stories - The Sphynx, A Tale of Jerusalem, The Devil in the Belfry, Mistification, The Spectacles, and Some Words with a Mummy - by the American fictionist, poet, and critic Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), world wide known as the father of the modern short story, in order to analyze how the author builds humor and satire and to what extent they constitute an ambivalent satire to his social millieu. The analyses reveal the existence of the author's compromise with the society of his time, which is manifested in his fictional creation by means of the satire and criticism of the exaggerations of XIXth century American ideology.
Doutor

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:32:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2007-01-18Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:21:20Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 silva_amz_dr_arafcl.pdf: 1437284 bytes, checksum: a57768f1083ee10b765a92dde5c797f1 (MD5)
Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)
Esta tese tem por objetivo o estudo de seis contos - A esfinge, Uma estória de Jerusalém, O diabo no campanário, Mistificação, Os óculos e Pequena conversa com uma múmia - do ficcionista, poeta e crítico norte-americano Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), mundialmente conhecido como o pai do conto moderno, a fim de analisar o modo como o autor constrói o humor e a sátira e em que medida eles constituem uma sátira ambivalente ao seu meio social. As análises revelam a existência de um compromisso do autor com a sociedade do seu tempo, que se manifesta na criação ficcional pelo viés satírico e crítico aos exageros da ideologia norte-americana do século XIX.
This dissertation aims to study six short stories - The Sphynx, A Tale of Jerusalem, The Devil in the Belfry, Mistification, The Spectacles, and Some Words with a Mummy - by the American fictionist, poet, and critic Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), world wide known as the father of the modern short story, in order to analyze how the author builds humor and satire and to what extent they constitute an ambivalent satire to his social millieu. The analyses reveal the existence of the author's compromise with the society of his time, which is manifested in his fictional creation by means of the satire and criticism of the exaggerations of XIXth century American ideology.

Esta tese apresenta a continuação de um estudo da obra de Edgar Allan Poe iniciado no Mestrado, que focou no primeiro conto de detetive de Poe, The Murders in the Rue Morgue. Na presente etapa, o objetivo foi investigar de que maneira a obra de Poe figura uma experiência sócio-histórica específica, estudando desta vez seus outros dois contos de detetive, The Mystery of Marie Rogêt e The Purloined Letter. Ao ampliar o foco da pesquisa para compreender melhor o lugar desses contos na obra do escritor, o estudo levou à conclusão de que os três contos de detetive de Poe, publicados entre 1841 e 1844, desempenham um papel central na figuração da sua experiência histórica, representando um momento importante de síntese de suas reflexões. Por isso, esta tese organiza-se de modo a dar esta posição de destaque aos seus contos de detetive, mas apresenta, no primeiro e no quarto capítulos, comentários acerca de uma seleção de outras de suas obras, literárias ou não, que representam momentos importantes do percurso de suas reflexões e de sua tomada de posição diante das contradições próprias de seu momento histórico. As principais dessas contradições dizem respeito ao funcionamento do mercado editorial dos Estados Unidos no século XIX, e incluem a produção de literatura popular e de jornalismo sensacionalista, a relação com o público leitor e as relações de produção predominantes no mencionado mercado. Poe desenvolve um posicionamento crítico cada vez mais consequente diante desse contexto, desenhando diagnósticos a respeito da situação do escritor e da literatura diante da mercadorização da atividade artística e definindo posturas propositivas, especialmente por meio de seu reaproveitamento criativo dos materiais disponíveis, assim apontando para possibilidades expressivas mais desafiadoras e relevantes do que as que ele via se multiplicando na época. Além disso, são importantes outras atitudes de Poe que demonstraram sua insatisfação com as relações de produção da época, tais como a escrita de diversos artigos sobre o tema e, da maior relevância, sua tentativa (embora fracassada) de lançar uma revista literária controlada por artistas. Tudo isso faz da obra de Edgar Allan Poe uma grande contribuição para a literatura.
This dissertation presents the continuation of a study of Edgar Allan Poes work started in the Masters research whose object was the first detective story written by Poe, published in 1841, The Murders in the Rue Morgue. In the present study, the objective is to investigate how Poes work represents a social-historical experience, focusing this time on his two other detective stories, The Mystery of Marie Rogêt and The Purloined Letter. When enlarging the scope of the research in order to better understand the role of these stories in the writers work, the study led to the conclusion that his three detective stories, published between 1841 and 1844, in fact play a central role in the figuration of his historical experience, representing an important moment of synthesis in his reflections. For this reason, this dissertation is organized so as to put forth his detective stories, while also presenting, in the first and forth chapters, comments regarding a selection of other works, literary or not, representing important moments of the development of his reflections and his positioning before the contradictions of his historical moment. The most relevant of these contradictions concern the operation of the editorial market of the United States in the 19th century, and include the production of sensational popular literature, the sensational journalism, the relation with the reading public and the relations of production predominating in the market. The writer develops an increasingly consequent critical positioning before such context, designing diagnoses about the writers and literatures situations in a moment of commodification of the artistic activity and defining an active attitude, thus indicating expressive possibilities which were more challenging and relevant than the ones he saw multiplying in his times. Besides, there are other attitudes in which Poe demonstrated his dissatisfaction with the relations of production, suc as his articles about the theme and, very relevant, his attempt (although he failed) of starting a literary magazine controlled by artists. This makes Edgar Allan Poes work a huge contribution for literature.

This study is primarily concerned with the diverse processes of constitution and deconstitution of subjectivity at work in the writing of Edgar Allan Poe. The analysis is largely confined to the short fiction, although some reference is made to Poe's other work; twentyone tales are examined, in greater or lesser detail, with the aid of various theoretical perspectives - sociological, structuralist and, above all, psychoanalytic. The aim is to present a new reading of Poe's texts which rejects traditional "unity"-based interpretations. The thesis privileges the psychological dimension, but in textual, not biographical terms; it stresses the tales' often undervalued element of modernity as well as their receptiveness to emergent processes and discourses. The psychological dimensions analysed include: the explicit presentation of mental splitting ('William Wilson') and institutionalised madness ('The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether'); the signification of alienation ('The Man of the Crowd') and self-destruction ('The Imp of the Perverse', 'The Black Cat', 'The Tell-Tale Heart') as constitutive of the subject at a determinate historical moment; the simultaneous construction and subversion of mythical signifiers of an illusory "full" subject, both metonyms (the detective, the mesmerist) and metaphors (the artwork, the interior); the symbolic emergence from repression of active female desire, perceived as threatening in the male unconscious ('The Oval Portrait', 'Ligeia'); and the disintegration of the subject under the pressure of its own repressions ('The Fall of the House of Usher'). Particular stress is laid throughout on the textual undermining of the dividing-lines between "normal" and "abnormal", "sane" and "insane", "respectable" and "criminal". It is concluded that Poe's work constitutes a map of the vicissitudes and contradictions of subjectivity in patriarchal culture; from the study of these texts, the "I" emerges as formed out of a massive repression, and as therefore constantly liable to fragmentation and rupture.

Informe de Seminario para optar al grado de Licenciada en Lengua y Literatura Hispánica
In this work I will study a particular urban subject present in every society, I will investigate the urban subject of the criminal illustrated in an Edgar Allan Poe’s selection of seven tales. In this case I have decided to rename the criminal as “pariah”. I use this term because I consider that it fits perfectly when defining a person that is “undesirable” and “rejected” by society. The choice of this term is also supported by David Reynolds’s work Beneath the American Renaissance in which he refers to the “asocial” subjects of the urban city as a “pariah”. I have lent this term because I consider that it is suitable to describe the subject being studied. It is also relevant to add that Charles Baudelaire refers to Poe as a “—drunkard pauper, oppressed pariah” (58). The use of the term pariah to refer to Edgar Allan Poe’s protagonists is just a coincidence with Baudelaire’s use of the term.

This essay explores a paradoxical imbalance between male and female within three of Poe's short fiction works: Berenice, Ligeia, and The Fall of the House of Usher. Specifically, it analyzes both mental and physical agency, identifying dominant and submissive moments for both male and female characters in both categories, with neither gender being healthy while the other is, and neither unhealthy while the other is. The characters that make up the female side of this paradox are all women who are buried alive and who gain postmortem agency. These resurrected female characters consistently take both mental and physical power away from their male counterparts before a culmination and climax in their power roles when they reveal their continued life after death to male narrators. At this time, a resolution in the struggle between the genders occurs with female characters ending in positions of both physical and mental power. This tension between male and female seeks resolution while simultaneously revealing Poe’s obsession and fascination with its imbalance.

O trabalho tem por objetivo verificar de que forma os avanços científicos e tecnológicos da humanidade influenciaram a obra de Edgar Allan Poe e de Machado de Assis. A análise propõe revelar o olhar desses escritores acerca das novas possibilidades que eram oferecidas à sociedade com o intuito maior de evidenciar o papel da literatura nesse processo, uma vez que o homem é capaz de enxergar todo o comportamento de uma época e, conseqüentemente, a si mesmo, através da obra literária. Essa atitude de “olhar para trás” e para “dentro de si mesmo”, acredita-se, permite que o homem avance ainda mais. Para realizar a análise proposta, a pesquisa utiliza-se de conceitos como o de intertextualidade e interdisciplinaridade, muito caros à Literatura Comparada, com o fim de promover relações entre as diferentes áreas do saber – Literatura e Ciência –, entre os diferentes escritores e, por fim, entre os diversos gêneros literários que constituem o corpus do presente estudo. Após um breve panorama da história do desenvolvimento dos avanços científicos e tecnológicos da humanidade, procede-se às análises dos textos selecionados, procurando apontar e relacionar o pensamento dos escritores, provando que idéias sobre os avanços científicos e tecnológicos estão presentes na produção literária de cada um. Por fim, após o confronto estabelecido durante todo o trabalho entre o pensamento e o posicionamento dos escritores, discutese o papel da literatura no desenvolvimento e avanço da humanidade.
The paper aims to verify how the writings of Edgar Allan Poe and Machado de Assis had been influenced by the humanity' scientific and technological advances. The analysis proposes to reveal the sight of these two writers over the new possibilities that had been offered to the society, with the main objective of emphasizing the literature role in this process, considering that the human being is able to see the behavior of an entire period of time and consequently to himself through the literary work. This action of “looking back” and of “looking inside”, believes this research, allows him advance still more. In order to do that, the research takes some concepts as intertextuality and interdisciplinarity, extremely valued to the Comparative Literature, with the main objective of promoting relations between the different areas of knowledge – Literature and Science –, between the two different writers and, in the end, among the various literary genres that take part of the corpus of this study. After a brief view of the humanity history of scientific and technological advances development, the analysis of the selected texts is performed, endeavoring to emphasize and make the relation between the ways of thinking of these writers, proving that specific ideas about science and its advances really are in the literary production of each other. In the end, after the confrontation established during all over the research between the thinking and the position of the writers, the literature role in the humanity’s development and advance is discussed.

This thesis examines the idea that strong interconnections exist between the depiction of Southern America as a region and the use of concepts of 'madness' in the short fiction of Kate Chopin, William Faulkner, and Flannery O'Connor. From a brief discussion of Poe, the 'father' of the short story, whose theories and works first establish the short narrative as an important literary form, and also demonstrate its particular effectiveness in exploring forms of mental distortion, this discussion moves to more extensive analysis of the works of Chopin, Faulkner, and O'Connor. Covering a period between the 1890s and the 1960s, and despite displaying differing perspectives on their region, these authors establish distinct interrelationships between the experience of the South, ideas of personal and social madness, and the unique ability of the short narrative to articulate these themes with the impact of concentrated totality.

碩士
靜宜大學
英國語文學系
103
This thesis aims to explore the scapegoating death and resurrection theme in Edgar Allan Poe’s “Ligeia,” “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “The Murders in the Rue Morgue.” Poe in “The Philosophy of Composition” proclaims that “the death of a beautiful woman” is the “most poetical topic in the world.” The process of the death of a beautiful woman as a scapegoat and her subsequent resurrection as repeated in the narratives of Poe’s works reveal his narratives to be based on primitive death rituals as studied by James George Frazer in The Golden Bough and René Girard in Violence and the Sacred. Moreover, Poe’s stories descriptively elaborate affective dimension of such rituals. In the three short stories, details about “the deaths of the females” and the effects of “fear” are the main foci of the narration. The characters suffer from unknown things which are shaped by the forces of Nature and cause the deaths of women. However, while depicting the deaths of women in a violent and direct manner, Poe exposes his killers as performing sacrifices. Using the concept of "the scapegoat" derived from James George Frazer’s The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion and "the stereotypes of persecution" in René Girard’s The Scapegoat, this thesis analyses the narratives as ritualistic mechanisms in Poe’s stories. The introductory chapter introduces Poe’s theory and the motivation of the thesis. In the first chapter, the concepts of James George Frazer’s The Golden Bough and the ideas of René Girard’s The Scapegoat are investigated and taken as the theories to the thesis. In the second chapter, the research explores the unknowns, including the unknown objects, the unknown houses and the unknown killers. Also, the chapter probes the relationship between the unknowns and Nature. The unknowns from Nature shape the oppressions and arouse the fear of the characters. In the third chapter, the interpretation centers on the dead or dying females as the scapegoats and their dying processes as a ritualistic process. In the fourth chapter, the research explores the similarity between Poe’s three short stories and Frazer’s “movement of the higher thought” as it restates and summarizes the ritual scapegoating in Poe’s three short stories.

This diploma thesis is focused on the topic of Ch. Baudelaire?s translations of E. A. Poe?s work. The main aim is to show the similarities of these translations and differences between them. It was achieved by using the methods of comparative analysis of the original and the target texts. The motives which led Baudelaire to choose Poe and his work represent the significant role. Last but not least the author reflects the question of Poe?s influence on the work of Baudelaire. The results of the research were achieved with the help of specialised literature, original English texts and their French translations which constitute the basis of the comparative analysis.

碩士
淡江大學
英文學系碩士班
102
Abstract: Our fascination to Gothic fiction never fades away since the 18th century, even nowadays, vampires and other immortal monsters become a new fashion in literature and art. What Gothic genre attracts audience are not only the horrifying elements from terror and death, but also the imagination from the uncertainty that gothic fiction reveals us. This thesis aims to discuss the represented aesthetics of terror and death through the imagery of vampires and undead monsters in gothic fiction. From different historical and cultural backgrounds, the anxiety and desire are read closely in the three Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories, “Ligeia,” “The Fall of the House of Usher ”and“ Eleonora,” Irish novelist Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and Francis Ford Coppola’s movie Bram Stoker''s Dracula, through psychoanalytic perspectives. In introduction, I briefly explain the theme and theoretical frameworks of this thesis. In Ann Radcliffe’s essay “On the Supernatural in Poetry,” she characterizes the distinction between “Terror” and “Horror,” two representative features in Gothic fiction. Moreover, with the elements of Romanticism, gothic fiction became a literary genre since the 18th century. Edgar Allan Poe and Bram Stoker, both considered as gothic writers, terror, horror and undying love are represented in their works. On the basis of their writing styles, I reconsider the similarities in their stories through psychoanalytic perspectives from Lacan’s concept of object a. In Freud’s The Ego and the Id, he talks about concept of conflicts and anxiety by repressed thoughts. In Chapter One, I reconsider the male “unreliable” narrators’ nostalgia and impact resulted from their loss of the mysterious and undying females, which eventually lead to their self-destruction. Under the structure of Freudian concept, anxiety and self-destruction are dealt with through psychoanalysis point of view. In Chapter Two, through Freudian concept of Anxiety in The Ego and the Id, I reconsider the repressed desire and anxiety of the late-Victorians in Bram Stoker’s Dracula. With the social, cultural and religious conversion, the late-Victorians released their repression through vampiric imagery like Dracula. Both Freud and Lacan use the term “other,” referring to the other person or order, but Lacan uses the big other to emphasize the distinction between the ego and the Other. On the scheme of the Other, I deal with the repressed desire and struggle of Mina Murray and Lucy, who suffer from the social and gender unfairness in late-Victorian Era. In Chapter Three, the comparison between Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Coppola’s movie Bram Stoker''s Dracula is the main issue. The novel deals with terror and repression, but the film deals with love and desire. According to Lacan, desire is the leftover when “demand” is subtracted from “need,” and anxiety occurs around desire. Under this structure, the fear of masculinity in this film will be dealt with through psychoanalytic viewpoint of Lacan’s anxiety. Moreover, I reconsider the love between the Count and Mina through psychoanalytic perspective.