Edgar Allan Poe's Contribution To The Continuation And Development Of The Gothic Novel

The study on Edgar Allan Poe has been lasting for one and a half century in western academia, during which a lot of literary schools take the Poe' s literature into their theoretical framework for examining research. Thus it has developed Allan Poe' s status in United States and even in world literature. Influenced by the previous political bias and thinking pattern in reading, scholars in China lags behind in its translation, whose research is still restricted in the introduction of woks and text analysis. And research perspectives are mostly confined to re-discussion of theme and writing skills which has well been established. They do not explore the source relation with the traditional gothic novel manifested in the Poe' s works from the perspective of history. This thesis will take Poe' s novel which has worldwide influence as the research object to analyze Poe' s contribution to continuation and development of gothic novel from the aspects of plot subject choice, embodiment of esthetic characteristics and creative meaning of new style, using the comparative literature influence research and receiving research. It reveals their common esthetic characteristics and uniqueness and value of Poe' s novel to bring his works into the whole literature system instead of study in isolation so as to better realize Poe' s artistic innovation and his transcendence of the contemporary writers, confirming his status and impact in world literature.Edgar Allan Poe is the first true American gothic writer and also the first one who elaborates the theory of gothic novel systematically and convincingly. The plot, characterization and style are often drawn directly from the gothic novel to express his universal philosophy and theory of novel. It makes his novel similar with the gothic novel in esthetic characteristics and receiving effect and at the same time has a subversive force to the mainstream literature which maintains the existing order and norm. Edgar Allan Poe creatively develops the gothic novel after learning the traditional gothic novel. He develops the genre of psychological analysis, detective fiction and sets a precedent of American science fiction. It expands the depth and breadth of literary tension and has a revealing impact on the style, theme and esthetics of later works. He has absorbed and inherited the British gothic novel in its presentation of terror, suffering and evil psychology, making the terror and weird from the popular into the classical. It makes the gothic novel, a genre which has long been marginalized and not given the due attention it deserves, changed a lot in its esthetic characteristic and artistic connotation. He transcends the contemporary writers in reflecting the power of knowledge, embodying the alienation of mankind caused by the civilization of industrial. His works have a strong modem meaning and a unique sense of foresight and have influenced lots of prestigious writers in modem literature including Baudelaire and Faulkner.