The Continuation And Development Of Gothic Fiction In Edgar Allan Poe’s Short Stories

Edgar Allan Poe was the first writer to systematically elaborate the theory ofgothic fiction in American literary history. His plot, characterization and writing stylewere directly inspired from traditional gothic fictions, which took surroundings like oldcastles, wastelands and ruins as backgrounds, arranged full of violence, revenge anddeath plots, and built gloomy and mysterious atmospheres. This made Allan Poe’sfictions similar to traditional gothic fictions in the aspects of aesthetic features,receiving effects and the subversive force towards order and standard that mainstreamemphasized.Besides the continuation, Allan Poe creatively developed gothic fiction. Based onthe inheritance of traditional elements of gothic novel, he initiated new literary genressuch as detective story and scientific fiction in American. Meanwhile, Allan Poeadopted many themes of Modernist Literature, a literary genre arose in the early20thcentury. The Modernist themes he repeatedly adopted include split personality, humanevil and emotional conflict between father and son. Idiomatic writing techniques ofModernist works such as first-person narration and monologue were also applied inAllan Poe’s short stories. By transforming the aesthetic features and artisticconnotations, Allan Poe gained gothic fiction, a genre which had long beenmarginalized and ignored, great attentions. His reflection of the power of science anddescription of twisted human nature caused by industrial civilization had fartranscended his contemporaries.This thesis mainly analyzes two aspects: Allan Poe’s continuation anddevelopment of gothic fiction. The study on continuation is done from the choice ofthemes, the construction of senses and the creation of atmospheres, and the charactersof plots, while study on development from the aspects of the terror from inner heart, the Modernism elements shown in Allan Poe’s short stories and the contribution he didto a new literary genre. By teasing out the relations between Allan Poe’s works andtraditional gothic fiction, the author plans to bring Allan Poe’s works into the wholeliterature system instead of studying it in isolation, and finally to get a betterunderstanding of his aesthetics theory, unique contribution and his position in literaryhistory.