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1、爱伦坡运用恐怖取娱【关键词】爱伦?坡恐怖娱乐1. IntroductionEdgar Allan Poe is a famous poet, short story writer and literary critic of America. His short story is Gothic, which is horror. Most of his works convey the supernatural horror, mysterious death, brutal crime and desolate fate. He proposes the theory of art for
2、art, and the purpose of his writing is just for entertainment not for truth of something. So, most of his stories have no themes. But his creations of stories are the reflection of himself. He uses the horror in his works to get psychological balance, to relieve his feeling and entertain(entertain h
3、imself and readers). This thesis intends to explore ways in which Edgar Allan Poe uses horror to entertain in his stories.2. Introduction to Edgar Allan Poe2.1 Allan Poes LifetimeEdgar Allan Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts on January 19, 1809 in a family of wandering theater players. Less than
4、 two years old, Poes father left the family for some reasons, leaving his mother and other two children, and his mother died of tuberculosis the following year. At that time, Poe was no more than three years old. Then, John Allan who was a tobacco export trader in Richmond adopted Poe. His childhood
5、 was not a good memory to him, although he had studied for five years in England and was given a fine elementary education. In 1826, he entered the university of Virginia where he studied well and made excellent marks, but he contracted large debts by drinking and gambling that his stepfather Allan
6、refused to pay. As a result he had to terminate his university career less than one year, and this also made his breaking off relations with John Allan, henceforth beginning his drift life. After that, in order to make living, Allan Poe enlisted in the army in May 1827, where he stayed for two years
7、. Next he went to the West Point Academy, taking one years course, but he didnt get accustomed to its serious life and eventually was discharged. From then on, Allan Poe formally began his literary career, running in Richmond, New York and some other places, publishing poems on periodicals and once
8、taking as an editor with lowest pay just enough for living.Poes first love ended with the girls fathers intervention. Later, in 1835, Allan Poe married his cousin Virginia, who was only thirteen, but Poe was 27 years old. Its Poes prime time of his life and literary career during twelve years after
9、their marriage. During that time, for having a warm family, he could make full energy write and received a lot. Most of his important works were produced at this time. He still assumed several periodicals editorial works. However, it was not a long time that his 25-year old wifes death gave Poe a bi
10、g strike in spirit. Because of grief at his wifes death, he had no mood and energy to write. So in the following two years, he just corrected one novel he had written five years ago except for few poems and the same fate on his poor love affairs. On October 3,1849, Poe died of congestion of the brai
11、n on a Baltimore street, ending his hard life.2.2 Allan Poes WorksDuring Allan Poes lifetime, he has contributed many poems, novels and literary critics to us. His literary creation begins with writing poems. In all he writes more than 50 poems, and most of them are popular, like Raven, To Helen, An
12、nabel Lee, and The City in the Sea, Israel. As a poet Poe thinks that poetry should appeal only to the sense of beauty, not truth, and sets himself against realistic details in poetry. He makes good use of a number of poetic devices to create a mood appropriate to the theme of his poems.1 Another gr
13、eat contribution to American literature is his short stories. He writes 70 stories of which about 20 are famous in the world. Poes short stories can be divided into two categories: tales of grotesque and arabesque. The representatives of his gothic novels are The Fall of the House of Usher, The Blac
14、k Cat, The Pit and Pendulum, The Cask of Amontillado, and Logier. The representatives of latter are Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Mystery of Marie Roget, The Purloined Letter, The Gold Bug and Its You. As the first major American critic, Poe stresses the value of art, form and unity that plays a vi
15、tal part in the development of the analytical approach, a method typical of modern criticism. These works have great effect on American and the whole worlds literature.3. The Source of Allan Poes Creation in Novels3.1 America in the 19th CenturyAllan Poe was born in the 19th century. At that time, A
16、merica had succeeded in liberty. During the growing of national culture, the new works of the native writers had being come up. Though these works imitated the English literature in technique of expression they manifested their own distinctive national feature. After a periods ferment of national li
17、terature, its come up to the prime time in the first half of the 19th century, forming Romantic Movement. American national literature used vivid manifestation to express the bourgeoisies ideal and compassion in its rising time in content, and was freed from old pattern in colonial time, all of whic
18、h made American national literature use romantic creational method. In addition, European literature was in the prime time of romanticism at that time, and affected American literature. So its naturally came to the trend of Romanticism. And Super-Empiricism was born at that time; its central idea wa
19、s that human beings could directly get to know truth by surpass his sensation and reason. It stressed the subjective initiation of human beings and provided ideological base to romanticism. It was the liberation movement of ideology that came up as the development of capitalism and theres another as
20、pect of literature in this time, which was abolishing slavery literature.3.2 The Character of PoeThe whole life of Allan Poe is hard. When he was young, he lost his parents love(both farther and mothers), of which the fate deprived from the very beginning. And then John Allan, a rich merchant, adopt
21、ed him. Although he accepted some education, he couldnt get the real love from them. He was sensitive and so he didnt get along well with his stepfather. The failure of family love made Poe feel depressed of the future, and soon addicted to drinking, gambling and dragging, all of which made Poes bre
22、ak off relationship with Allan. So since then, Poe had to make living for newspaper and magazine editorial work and just could eat his own bread. Poe was quick in brilliant mind; the depression of life and thought may to some extent stimulate his inspiration of literary creation. In his later life,
23、his young wifes death undoubtfully gives a big strike to him. He couldnt face and endure this fact to him. And the effect of the abnormal society makes him write and drink to express his sorrow and depression. Once he said that his enemies owe his insane to drinking, not drinking to insane. Before h
24、is death, he mentioned:“I was never really insane, except on occasions when my heart was touched.”2 Poes life is filled with horrible crime and madness, he gets some psychological balance by writing, so to a great extent, many of his works are the reflection of Poes real life. In the late of the 18t
25、h century, someone has created the horrible novel, but Allan Poes abnormal character made this type of work to its prime time. The contradiction in his heart reflected its basic character at that time. He realized the breakage between the“new” world and the“old” world. America has being freed from e
26、conomic politics, ideology and literature. He was infatuated with past and sensitive to the new. He said high to noble politics, but doubted demo criticism, defending slavery system but deeply against the development of commercial economy. He meant to find his own place in traditional society, while
27、 it pushed him to his opposition, intensifying his loneness. The breakage of his personal hope enabled him to know the life and society more clearly. He doubted the American dream long ago, and predicted many“nightmares” of the contemporary time in 20th century.4. The Characteristics of Allan Poes S
28、hort Story4.1 Poes Theory on Short StoryAllan Poe has written seventy short stories in his lifetime and about twenty of which are famous in world literature, making great contribution to American literature. Poes short stories can be generally divided into two kinds: gothic novel and detective novel
29、. It is considered that Poe is a pioneer in the development of American short stories, though Washington Irving writes short story earlier than him for Poe is the first to treat it as an independent literary form and poses short storys creating theory. He insists that the writer must determine the e
30、ffect that he wishes to produce first and then deliberately chooses incidents to assist in the creation of such an effect.3 All of Poes novels embody this“effect” theory he has posed. In each work, he requires each plot; sentence even every word to contribute to exaggerate the special atmosphere tha
31、t he schemes in advance.4.2 The Gothic Novel4.2.1 The Origin of Gothic NovelThe word“ Goth” dates from the name of gothic tribe in the Teutonic nation, which formerly settles in northern Europe after several centuries migration and has finally conquered the powerful Western Roman Empire in 5th centu
32、ry A.D. The strong gothic people are the main force against Roman in the battle. However, like many other nations conquered by advanced civilization in the history, the Goths has also rapidly being assimilated and losing its own nationality. After about in 7th century A.D., the Goths, as a nation, h
33、as disappeared in history. But because they are brave and skillful in the battle, the traumas and the hateful and horrible perplexed mind in southern Europeans heart are not die out. After more than one thousand years of the extinction of Western Roman Empire, the Italian Vasari finds out the word“
34、Goth” to address the middle centurys architectural style, which the Renaissance thinkers dislike. This kind of architectural style prevails in Europe from 12th century to 16th century, which mainly used for building the church and the castle. The architecture usually has a high pinnacle, a thick and
35、 heavy cliff, narrow windows, tinged glasses, gloomy indoors, the ghastly tunnel and even the basement hiding corpse and so on, which in those Renaissance thinkers eyes, represents backwardness, brutality and darkness. This kind of architecture just replaces the symbol of socalled the Dark Ages of t
36、he old Romans glorious civilization. So, the name of that“brutal”,“cruel”, and“blood-thirsty” tribe, which ruins the old Roman, is most suitable for this kind of architectural style. And then, in the effect of the Renaissance thinkers, the word“Goth” has many meanings, such as brutal, horrible, myst
37、erious. Until the late 18th century,“Goth” has become the name of the new form of novel. This sort of novel usually sets in old castles, ruins and the wilds. The stories usually happen in the past, especially in the Middle Ages. The plots are filled with horror and stimulation, murder, violence, rev
38、enge, adultery. The ghost usually appears in the story or other super natural phenomenon explained only by the illusion and fantasy. From the beginning to end, the atmosphere in the novel is gloomy, mysterious and horrible, and filled with suspense. The main characters in the story are usually Scoun
39、drels, owing castle or abbey, with noble but unclear birth. Usually there is a dark and gloomy cellar in the castle or abbey, where hides ulterior secrets, with occasional mysterious and horrible things happening, these scoundrels often seek, detain even persecute a young, tender but weak girl who w
40、ill terrified at the castle or abbess, and be tortured or frightened by them in attempting to escape. Then, these Scoundrels hypocritical masks are gradually exposed. With the combination of the victim and other just powers, these Scoundrels are eventually defeated. The gothic novel first appeared i
41、n the year 1764. The babble and the Christianity legend are the important sources of gothic novel. The most outstanding, universal and lasting theme in the gothic novel is the perpetual conflicts between good and evil. As a form of novel, the gothic novel has not only established its place in Englan
42、d but also influenced other countries, especially America. The famous and non-famous writers are passionate for writing this sort of novel, and make it be the main stream in literature. In the late 18th and early 19th, the romanticism becomes the mainstream of literature and the gothic novel also co
43、mes to its most prime time. To some extent, all the romanticists are the Realistic traitors. But mainstream romanticism literatures core is to idealize while the gothic novel not. Although in the gothic novel here are some idealistic figures and it also indirectly expresses the ideal values, it has
44、always been focus on exposing evil and darkness. Thus, the gothic novel is a special romanticism literary faction, which called“Dark Romanticism” by commentators. The so-called“dark” is mainly manifested in two aspects: Of the plot, it strongly exaggerates violence and terror; In theme ideology, not
45、 like general romantic works positively express their ideals with emphasis on the social, political and moral values, but through exposing social、 political、 religious and ethical evil, the dark sides of humanity the gothic novel carries out more thorough exploration, especially moral exploration. A
46、llan Poes gothic novels are even more accurate- called psychological gothic novels, because he usually puts the creation of his characters to his creational environment, focusing on how the psychological and mental activities presented delicately and precisely. And Poe uses the special power of horr
47、or to break up the incrustation made by the society, to free people from bondage of worldly concept so as to go into peoples deep soul to reveal their most secret inner hearts, unfolding the most original requirements and instinct or exposing the evil things which he isnt willing or dare to face. Al
48、lan Poe has written so many excellent works by using his rich imagination and exploring his deep soul.4.2.2 The Feature of Gothic NovelThe gothic novel is considered to be Poes most important work. This kind of work almost describes mysterious death, super-natural horror, which is thrilling and mons
49、trous with gothic legend in writers tone. The background is generally gothic, such as decadent castle and mansion church basement or family tomb that is filled with skeleton and tomb-like new house. There are just one or two main characters, but they are learned and versatile rich and elegant in noble family, while at the same time decadent and declining and with the disease that cant be cured. All shroud in the shade of death with no escape. All the stories repeat the them