CONTENTS
Acknowledgements i
Abstract ii
摘要 iii
1 Introduction 1
2 The Brief Introduction of Edgar Allan Poe 3
2.1 Poe’s Life Experience and Its Influence on His Writings 3
2.2 Classification of Poe’s Works 4
3. Gothicism 5
3.1 Definition of the “Gothic” 5
3.2 Traditional Gothicism in English Literature 6
3.3 Edgar Allan Poe and American Gothic Literature 8
4 Gothic Elements in The Fall of the House of Usher 9
4.1 Brief Introduction of The Fall of the House of Usher 9
4.2 Gothic Elements Based on The Fall of the House of Usher 10
4.2.1 Poe’s “Effect Theory”---the unity of terrifying effect 10
4.2.2 Environmental Gothicism 11
4.2.3 Psychological Gothicism---the fears of soul 13
5 Conclusion 16
Bibliography 17
Acknowledgements
I would like to express my sincere thanks to my supervisor, Doc. Chen Qinghua for his patient guidance and encouragement. He always points out my mistakes in my paper carefully and kindly. It is only with his help that I can smoothly finish my graduate paper.
What’s more, I also appreciate the support and encouragement from my parents. During the period of writing my graduate paper, they also support me with both material and spiritual help.
Last but not least, I extend my sincere thanks to all the teachers in the College of Foreign Languages. They are Chen Jiaxu, Prof. Zhongling, Doc. Yan Ming, etc, from whose excellent and instructive lectures I have benefit a lot in the writing of this thesis.
Abstract Edgar Allan Poe is a famous poet, novelist and literary critic in the 19th century. He was known as the ancestor of psychological novels, detective stories and science fiction. Poe was noticed and criticized for his tales of mystery, the macabre plot and pessimistic ideas by many readers and critics. “Effect” is indeed a keyword in Poe’s theoretical work as a whole. It recurs throughout his critical writings. In the creation of novel, Allan Poe emphasizes that the writer should withhold the readers’ chord through with a variety of realistic techniques, and then finally the novel can produce its presupposed and desired effect. According to Poe, the artistic beauty is just only an effect while the only thing the artist should do is just to bring a strong shock to the reader’s mind, and uplift their soul by his artistic creation. In Poe’s view, “sadness” and “melancholy” are the best words that embody the keynote of beauty. However, the combination of death and beauty, undoubtedly, is the most poetic and picturesque topic. Edgar Allan Poe, as the pioneering gothic novelist he, is remarkably adept at portraying the psychological mind of characters and highlighting the theme of moral exploration and human conflict. The Fall of the House of Usher is one of Poe’s excellent and typical short stories. It not only depicts the depressive and decaying scene, but also creates a suffocating sense of oppressing and wired air of mystery which not only makes the reader feel as if he has gone through the experience personally but also reveals the theme of story. This paper will take The Fall of the House of Usher as an example to analyze the characteristics of the gothic style in the Poe’s novel creation.
Key words: Edgar Allan Poe, Gothic Style, The Fall House of Usher
摘要
埃德加•爱伦•坡是十九世纪美国著名的诗人、小说家和文学评论家。他被誉为心理小说、侦探小说和科幻小说的鼻祖。坡的作品向来因离奇、恐怖的情节和悲观的思想而备受读者和评论家们的关注和争议。在小说创作中，爱伦•坡强调通过各种逼真的手法扣住读者的心弦，从而来达到他所预想的效果。他认为的艺术美是“一种效果”，艺术家唯一要做的便是通过其艺术创作使读者的心灵受到强烈的震撼，并使其“灵魂升华”。对坡来说，“哀伤”和“忧郁”最能表现美的基调，而“死亡和美紧密结合”无疑是最富有诗情画意的话题。爱伦•坡是哥特小说作为半正统文学形式开始复兴时的哥特式小说家，他善长刻画人物心理并突出道德探索和人性冲突的主题。《厄舍古屋的倒塌》被认为是爱伦•坡最优秀和最具代表性的短篇小说之一，该小说不仅描写了阴郁衰落的景象，而且还给人一种令人窒息的压抑感和离奇古怪的神秘色彩，使读者产生身临其境的幻觉，从而既给读者一种心灵震撼的感觉，又揭示了其死亡主题。英语毕业论文将以《厄舍古屋的倒塌》为例，对爱伦•坡在小说创作中所彰显的哥特式风格的特点进行剖析。4697 试论爱伦•坡的哥特式风格以《厄舍古屋的倒塌》为例:http://www.751com.cn/yingyu/lunwen_1470.html