On The Aesthetic Modernity Of Poe's Horror Tales

In the thesis, the term"modernity"is an aesthetic and cultural concept. Aesthetic modernity is related to the modernism culture and art in the 20th century. With Edgar Allan Poe's most influential horror tales as its data, the thesis proposes that they embody some of the essential qualities of the aesthetic modernity. Standing much ahead of his time, the connotation of his stories displays evident aesthetic modernity. Not only does he express the nothingness of the world, disclose the existential plight of modern people from the angle of reality, and criticize the evil of human nature from cultural angle, but also he provides us a blueprint to obtain spiritual homeland in aesthetic point of view with his unique perspective. At the same time, as far as the narration of his stories is concerned, Poe's narrative techniques embody the expressive modes of modernist fiction, which are profoundly manifested in his elaborate exploration of human sub-consciousness.On the basis of Modernist Literature and Aesthetics, the thesis analyzes the subject matters, modern consciousness, aesthetic innovation of ugliness appreciation and writing techniques in respect of their resemblance of modernism and penetrates into the aesthetic modernity of psychological territory of Poe's psychological horror tales. Chapter 1 defines the concept of aesthetic modernity. It focuses on the characteristics of modernism from subject matters and writing skills. Chapter 2 traces the origins of Poe's horror tales. In Chapter 3, the aesthetic modernity of Poe's horror tales is carried out in terms of the psychological revelation of horror and the revelation of spiritual predicament of modern people. The nightmarish world depicted by Poe includes nothingness, the evil of human nature, anxiety, escape and mental breakdown. Chapter 4 aims to illustrate the aesthetic modernity of writing techniques. Poe abandoned the third-person omniscient narrator and adopted the first-person limited-omniscient narrator. He revolted the traditional time-space narration, and applied symbol and image, techniques frequently used in modernist works, producing the effect of unity and full of mysterious horror. Chapter 5 elaborates on Poe's unique aesthetic perspective from perspectives of tragedy theory and sublimity theory. Poe's first including evil and ugliness into the aesthetic category embodies the modernity in literary concerns. And the aesthetic values of horror and death as the themes in Poe's stories are also stated, which enriches their aesthetic significance.The thesis reveals the modernistic aesthetic significance in human mental aspects, and further expands the appreciation and interpretation of aesthetic connation and aesthetic values in Poe's horror tales.