On Edgar Allan Poe’s Inheriting And Innovation Of The Gothic Tradition

As the most important heir and reformer of the Gothic tradition, Edgar Allan Poe not only inherited the quintessence of Gothic novels, he also deepened the connotation of it. With the elaboration and application of his theory of "unity of effect" in his major works, Poe ushered in the brand-new method of literary creation. Meanwhile, Poe dedicated himself to the presentation of his characters’"terror of soul", and acted as the trail-blazer for including the psychoanalysis in literary creation by infusing the conception of "terror" into readers’ psychological depth. What’s more, as a writer ahead of his time, Poe, with his subtler sensation and understanding of the time than his contemporary writers, reviewed and introspected on the alienation of modern men and the spiritual "wasteland" caused by knowledge, science, reason, and modem industrial civilization. His probing into the conscious and subconscious of humans endowed his Gothic novels with rich implication of modernism, thus foreshadowing numerous schools of modernist literature.The analysis in this thesis is based on Poe’s representative Gothic novels, like Ligeia, The Fall of the House of Usher, The Black Cat, etc. Poe’s theoretical innovation and writing practices, as well as his idiosyncratic aesthetics will be discussed here to reveal his achievement in expansion of Gothic sphere and deepening of Gothic connotations. Firstly, Poe’s theory of "unity of effect" will serve as the entry point to dissect The Fall of the House of Usher with his effect aesthetics. In Poe’s aesthetics, "effect" is undoubtedly the most fundamental, on which base Poe erected such concepts as "brevity of a work of art", "the totality of impression", "the novelty of the effect alone", etc., which all find their presence in The Fall of the House of Usher. Poe’s construction of the plot of House of Usher leads to the ultimate deconstruction (fall) of the "House of Usher". Furthermore, this thesis expounds the superiority of Poe’s works over traditional Gothic novels lies in Poe’s extension of "terror" into the protagonists’ psychological depth. With the adoption of the first-person narrative, atmosphere building, suspense, and open ending, Poe vividly presents the terror of death, evil of human nature, perverseness and nothingness. Finally, this thesis adumbrates Poe’s foresight as the "modernist in the Romantic era", and his inquiry into the modernistic issues like "loneliness", "alienation", "split selfhood", and "mental breakdown", which forecasts the spiritual predicament that modern men would inevitably face. Poe’s aesthetics and Gothic novels creation enlighten on the later modernism and modernists, which in turn endows him with new historical meanings in modern times.