On The Interpretation Of The Aesthetics And Modernity In Poe's Horror Fictions

Edgar Allan Poe,who is famous for his horror fictions,is a celebrated but controversial writer in American literary history.He not only gives full,hearty,pleasurable expressions to the human's inner fear and horror,but also makes an extreme exploration of the dark and morbid side of human nature to a great extent.The unique aesthetic ideas,such as the special love for death and the pursuit of the grotesque beauty of Edgar Allan Poe,which fully embodied in his horror fictions,demonstrates Poe's philosophical reflection on life and death.The thesis attempts to present the horror aesthetics embodied in Poe's fictions,the innovation for gothic horror aesthetics and the manifested modernity with the method of detailed text reading.It is the horror aesthetics thought and the embodied modernity in Poe's fictions that bestow his works with unique artistic value and charm.Therefore it is of great significance to explore the spiritual dilemma of the modern people and it is illuminating and instructive to the creation of the modern literature.The thesis is divided into four chapters: Chapter One is literature review.It mainly gives a systemic introduction of the relevant researches,the relevant aesthetics researches that have been done about Edgar Allan Poe both home and abroad.It also introduced the psychological and social motive for Poe's literary creation briefly.Chapter Two discusses Poe's innovation for the gothic aesthetics literature from the following three angles: the use of the horrible images,the themes of horror aesthetics and the inner world of characters.Chapter Three mainly presents the aesthetic thoughts in Poe's horror fictions by the following two aspects: the embodiment of aesthetics in plots from the perspective of the space,the time,the supernatural horror and the violence;the special pursuit for horror aesthetics from the perspective of the special preference for the death of pretty women and the pursuit for the grotesque beauty.Chapter Four studies the modernity embodied in Poe's horror fictions: the exploration of the dark side of human nature;the application of psychological realism,death as a final way to release.In addition,Poe paved the way for the development of modern literature by the application of literary techniques.