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Edgar Allan Poe and the Southern Gothic

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posted on 2023-06-09, 03:13 authored by Tom WrightTom Wright
This chapter explores the complex relationship of Edgar Allan Poe’s works to the Southern Gothic. Though raised in Virginia, and known during his lifetime as a Southern writer, Poe’s relationship to the region remains hard to pin down. Nonetheless, as this chapter explores, certain of his key works offered influential gothic critique of the antebellum South. This is explored in two texts which would exert a strong influence over later Southern writers: ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ (1839) and The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (1838). The chapter ends by arguing that thinking about Poe in terms of the Southern Gothic helps readers to appreciate his role as literary precursor, whilst allowing us to reflect upon the limitations of the very term itself.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Published version

Publisher

Palgrave

Page range

9-20

Pages

505.0

Book title

The Palgrave handbook of the Southern Gothic

Place of publication

London

ISBN

9781349693337

Department affiliated with

  • English Publications

Research groups affiliated with

  • Sussex Centre for American Studies Publications

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Editors

Charles L Crow, Susan Castillo Street

Legacy Posted Date

2016-09-30

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2016-09-30

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