An Analysis Of Modernity In Allan Poe's Literary Works

Allan Poe was a brilliant American poet, novelist and critic in the 19th century. He is well-known and unique in both American literature and the world's literature. He only writes seventy short stories in his life time, but they develop a new era and a new field for the short stories. His poems are full of permanent musicality and beautiful themes which have remained a long-lasting interests among people. He is the forerunner of the detective fictions, the pioneer of scientific fictions and the master of the horror fictions. Moreover, Allan Poe employs the modernism artistic expressions in his writings. While his contemporary writers were still pursuing the idea that the aims of the arts were to entertain and educate, Allan Poe, with his advancing ideas, combined some of the thoughts of European philosophers and raised the concept of"art for art's sake."This thesis carries the research from the point of modernity. The thesis is divided into introduction, body and conclusion. There are three parts in the body.In the introduction, the studies on Allan Poe are carried out from domestic and abroad prospectives. Based on these studies on Allan Poe, the new point of the thesis is proposed and its innovation and meaning are also illustrated .The body consists of three parts. Chapter One is about the modernity in Poe's detective fictions. This chapter is composed of three parts: the psychoanalysis from the writer's point, the non-linear cognitive narrative paradigm and the construction of suspense in the detective fictions. Poe is regarded as the forerunner of the detective fictions. His first detective fiction, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, is the real model of followers. The modernity of this detective fiction is analyzed from Freud's psychoanalysis. The Id, the Ego and the Superego are related to the culprit, the detective and the third part in the detective fiction. People can experience the charm of Poe's detective fictions and understand the motive of the culprit from the aspect of psychoanalysis. They will also figure out how the detective decodes the secrets and discloses the crime and how the third part helps the detective to prove the crime of the culprit. The second part is about the non-linear cognitive narrative paradigm which is different from the traditional one. In his detective fictions, Poe creates the classical narrative paradigm: start-development-climax-end. This kind of narrative paradigm disturbs readers'expectancy and the readers'interests are aroused in this way. There are two structures in the detective fictions. And the detective story covers the crime story. Therefore, readers try to figure out the crime story, which employs the non-linear narrative paradigm to get the original form of the whole story. The third part is about the construction of suspense in the detective fictions. Poe's successful employment of suspense in the detective fictions lays solid foundation for the development of the detective fictions. The narration of the detective fictions is crime, exploration, rationality and answers to the question, is different from the traditional novels. At the beginning of the detective fiction, readers will feel the brutality of the culprit and the innocence of the victim. They are attracted by the terrible scene of the crime and they want to know who did this crime. Poe's elaborate arrangement of the plot can arouse the curiosity of readers and enable them to follow the steps of the detective to find the culprit. They appreciate the detective fiction with a lot of questions in their heart. When their problems are solved, they will feel the beauty of suspense and the happiness of decoding. And the rationality of human is characterized and the presupposed effects are reached.Chapter Two is about the modernity in Poe's horror fictions. This chapter is divided into two parts: modern consciousness ahead of time and the nightmares of modern souls. The inner horror of souls and the aesthetic innovation of ugliness are explained in the part of modern consciousness ahead of time. Poe is a pioneer in exploring from rationality to irrationality. Poe is the first writer to explore human consciousness and at the same time he is the first person to explore the darkest area of human being. He creates a world full of strangeness, weirdness and horror in his horror fictions. In his horror fictions, he employs the traditional writing style of the Gothic fictions and inherits the traditional techniques of Gothic fictions to create horror, but he also makes some innovations in the horror fictions. Horror, the theme of Poe's horror fictions, is no longer in the aspect of natural horror which is in the state of sensations. However, it is the horror from the inner heart which is deep in people's mind. When people appreciate Poe's horror fictions, they can feel nervous, mysterious and horrible atmosphere and feel shocked in their deep hearts. The horror from the soul is the representation of loneliness, desperation and harsh living conditions among human being and it is also the philosophical exploration in the delicate relationship among human beings, nature, other people and themselves. In a word, Poe explores and discusses from the inner souls of human beings and people's subconsciousness, which brings enlightenment to modernism. The modern appreciation of ugliness is the achievement of aesthetic concept. People are independent and free to express their ideas in appreciation of ugliness. There is plenty of ugliness in Poe's horror fictions. Therefore, Poe is an early one to make innovation in appreciation from beauty to ugliness, which is superior to his contemporaries. The ugliness and the evil are spectacular in Poe's horror fictions. Poe does not write the ugliness for the sake of ugliness, but he makes aesthetic creation from the point of ugliness. The combination between death and beauty put forward by Poe is the best example of aesthetic innovation of ugliness.People get salvation through the way of murder and they have free mind by means of death in the part of nightmares of modern souls. The nightmares of modern souls are predicted, which is an amazing theme in his horror fictions. The heroes in his horror fictions can not bear the spiritual depression and they struggle through the way of murder so that they will get salvation from the spiritual difficulties and nightmares. On the contrary, they fail and put themselves into a painful situation. Death is another theme in Poe's horror fictions. Almost all the heroes end their lives through the way of death and they are not afraid of death. In their mind, death is a new life and the way for them to get rid of nightmares.Chapter Three is about the modernity in Poe's poems. This chapter is composed of the aesthetic values of death of beauty, the musicality of poems and the symbolism in his poems. There is a lot of description about the death of women in his poems. Poe thinks that the death of a woman is the most melancholy and beautiful theme in the world. Death is a melancholy theme by itself and the death of a woman is also a depressed theme. And Poe combines death and a woman so that readers experience the power of these two. The musicality of poems is reached through the way of rhythms and rhymes. The musicality of poems can not be neglected, which makes the poem smooth and fluent. Poe's cautious arrangement of rhymes and rhythms has left deep impression on readers who really appreciate his poems. The symbolism in Poe's poems has influenced the symbolism in France. The employment of images contributes to the new conception of poems, which helps readers better understand poems and experience the charm of poems. The last part is the conclusion which summarizes the whole thesis. Poe's literary works set great examples for the following generations. This thesis is demonstrated from the point of modernity. Although Poe was a 19th century writer, his literary works'influence on the next generation can not be neglected. The modernity in his literary works is significant and useful for writers in the next generations so that readers can understand the deep meaning and charm in his works. There are significant meanings in doing researches on Allan Poe's works from the point of modernity.