Impossible Storyworlds

Edgar Allan Poe(1809-1849)is known as an American poet and author.His works are full of horrific and macabre elements and are characterized by the Gothic style.Scholars study Poe's short stories form various respects and set their main focus on Poe's artistic technique.Based on the unnatural narrative theory of Jan Alber,Brian Richardson,Henrik Nielsen and other narratologists,this thesis focuses on the unnatural narrative elements in Poe's writings.Through analysis of Poe's short stories,the thesis finds that Poe's writings abound with anti-mimetic and impossible elements that violate the real world paradigm and transcend readers'cognitive frame.The narrators,characters,spaces and temporalities in Poe's short stories are featured with unnaturalness.In Poe's writings,the narrators are psychotics whose narratives denarrate their narrations;The characters are dead females or robot-like humans.;The spaces are geographically impossible;The distinction between the past and the present is deconstructed,and the protagonist can be sent back to an ancient ghost ship.With the analysis of narrators,characters,spaces and time,this thesis finally finds that the unreliable narrators,impossible figures and unnatural time-spaces all contribute to the deconstruction of the storyworlds and feature the storyworlds with impossibilities.In terms of themes and social significance,the psychotic narrators reveal men's mental problems.Dead characters and the robot-like man disclose social illnesses such as gender inequality,racism and colonialism.The geographically impossible spaces and unnatural temporalities criticize men's excessive request on nature and possible crisis brought by it.What's more,unnatural narrative theory also helps readers to interpret Poe's profound connotations and provides a new perspective for Poe's studies.