1、Research Proposal05 级国际教育学院商务英语 2 班 0569110050 李晓莉Title of my thesisInheritance and Innovation of Gothic Fiction:-An Interpretation of Allen Poes Short Stories对哥特式小说的传承-解读爱伦坡的短篇小说Significance of StudyEdgar Allan Poe is one of the most unique writers in America. However, as his creative techniques an
2、d literary theories are totally different from the main stream in the field of literature in his time, Poe had been misunderstood by readers and his contemporaries for quite a long time. However, his achievements on literary cannot be ignored. For example, despite Poes seemingly inheritance from som
3、e literary forbears, his contribution and innovation for the Gothic Fiction is profound and significant. Gradually, the importance of Poes literary creations had been recognized extensively by the academic world. Accordingly, in my view, it is significant to study Poes inheritance and innovation of
4、Gothic Fiction.Literature review Being the most controversial literary genius in the world, Edgar Allan Poe, who represents a literary category difficult to classify, occupies a unique position in the history of American literary. His great influences on French symbolism, psychoanalytic criticism, d
5、etective story, and modern Chinese literature are all significant, attracting increasing attention of literary critics in recent years.A touch of the awe in most of his short stories that grips the hearts of his readers may account for consistent interest in the study of his works both home and abro
6、ad. A searching browse casually taken at the website of literary of Harvard University brings up a list of 604 monographs on Poe between 1829 and 2004. The issues that have aroused interests in Euro-American Poe studies mainly include: 1. Poe as a literary critic; 2. Poes female images; 3.Poe and Go
7、thic tradition; 4. Poe and Sensationalism; 5. Poe and popular literature; 6. Poe and psychoanalysis; 7. Poe and Modernism; 8.Poe and popular culture; 9. Comparative studier of Poe and other writers.A very pertinent evaluation on Poe and his works given by Charles Whilbley argues that “if Poes life w
8、as a tangle of contradiction, his posthumously fame has been a very conflict of opposites.” Ever since the publication of Edgar Allen Poes very first works, diverse literary comments on his works have never ceased to come. Since his works were combined with two such apparently features as logical, r
9、ational thinking and wild, uncontrollable imaginations, most of his works were simply too ambiguous to percept well enough. Many literary critics and some first level writers would consider him an insane man or else at least an immature amateur who scribbled aimlessly and who did not actually know w
10、hat he wrote about. All in all, literary school held a totally diversified opinion on Poe.Some reviews from men of letters abroad are as follows. Emerson dismissed him in three words: the jungle man; Mark Twain declared his prose to be unreadable; Henry James made the ruthless statement that “a enth
11、usiasm for Poe is the mark of a decidedly primitive state of development”, and Whitman, who was the only literary famous figure present at the Poe Memorial Ceremony in Baltimore in 1875, possessed fixed feelings about him: he did admit Poes genius, but it was “its narrow range and unhealthy, lurid q
12、uality” that most impressed him. Even some more tolerant scholars or writers held a somewhat neutral, or sometimes even, perhaps, a negative point of view on his works. James Russet Lowel would rather call him a “three-fifths.genius and two-fifths fudge.“12 Nevertheless on the other hand, there were
13、 writers, among which the French poets occupy a large portion, who admired Poes works in a sincerest way.Ironically, it was in Europe that Poe enjoyed appreciation and reputation. Poes influence is considerable in Spain and Spanish America, in Italy, Germany and Russia. Many famous writers bear a vi
14、sible imprint of Poes influence. Bernard Shaw, D. H. Lawrence and W. H. Auden all admired and spoke highly of him. Shaw regarded Poes tales “complete works of art”.In China, the study on Poe began in the early twentieth century, and can be classified into three phases. The first phase starts from th
15、e beginning of the twentieth century, in that period, Poes work is introduced to China by Lu Xun and Poes works were translated into Chinese. Unfortunately, Chinese critics didnt place too much attention in his works. The second period starts from the1980s. Critics began to open their mind and try t
16、o comment on Poes writing style and his language due to the policy of Reform and Opening to the outside world. At that time, Poes works were considered to be completely negative, morbid and always dealing with death, dream and evil. The third period, also the most flourishing one, starts from the be
17、ginning of the twenty-first century. In this period, people began to study Poes works from the perspective of feminism, psychoanalysis, modernism and so on. Poes unique position in the history of literature began to be recognized more and more clearly.In his life time and long after his death, vario
18、us kinds of labels, appreciative and derogative, have been attached to the much talented writer: genius, drunkard, drug addict, eloper, one suffering from schizophrenia, etc., all of which are the by-products of the heated topic of Edgar Allen Poe as a man-of-letters. In brief, Adgar Allan Poe is on
19、e of the unique writers in American literature, many men of letters in America of the same contemporary depicted an America in its childhood by adopting a romantic tone, while Poes themes were about death, killing, violence nightmare and evil. He always disclosed alienation and isolation between hum
20、an beings and the world around them. By using the gothic horror and grotesquery, Poe revealed the nightmarish terror of the cruel society and the uncontrollable horror beneath the rational and order surface of the conscious mind. Poes inheritance of gothic fiction and American literature tradition c
21、ombined with his personal experience forms the background of his horror stories. In order to make his novels all the more unique, Poe innovated his writing method by means of psychoanalyzing the gothic traditions and commenced to modify the traditional gothic relationship, in which the direction of
22、horrifying averts from outside to inside, from setting to self. Although Poes literary fame has experienced ups and downs, his position as the pioneer of terror detective stories in the world literature has been finally secured.Key pointsThe thesis mainly focuses on the inheritance and innovation of
23、 Gothic fiction in the Allen Poes short stories. Though the brief discussion of the Allen Poes personal life, it can be found that Poes own wretched life tragedy provides him the Gothic Mind. As regard to inheritance, it is analyzed in terms of settings and atmosphere, horrible objects, special plot
24、 and so on. With reference to the innovation to the tradition of Gothic literature, Poe highlights the use of symbolic and supernatural phenomenon, both of which show a new theme of Poes Gothic talesterror from the soul. In addition, Poe opens up a new stylistics, which are detective stories. The co
25、nclusion part brings the whole thesis to an end and points out that Gothicism is profoundly improved and explored in Allan Poes short stories.Outline Introduction1. A Brief Introduction of Gothic Style and Allen Poe1.11.1 The Definition of the Term “Gothic”1.2Poes life and his major Gothic works2. I
26、nheritance form the tradition of Gothic literature2.1 The setting of Horror Scene2.2 Adoption of Symbols2.3 The Gothic flavor on the part of plot3. Innovation to the Gothic Tradition3.1 Horror from Human Soul3.2 The beauty of horror3.3 Opening up a New Stylistics4. ConclusionNotesBibliographyAcknowl
27、edgementsBibliography 1. Chang Yaoxin, A Survey of American Literature Tianjin: Nankai University Press, 1990. 2. Cliv Bloom ed. Gothic HorrorM, New York, St Martins Press, 1998.3. Hayes Kevin J Ed. The Cambridge Companion to Edgar Allan PoeM. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press, 2002.4. Edmund Bur
28、k, A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of theSublime and Beautiful in Selected Readings in Classical Western Critical Theory,Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press,1999.5. Ellis Markman. The History of Gothic FictionM. Edinburgh:Edinburgh UniversityPress, 2000.6. Li Y
29、ixie. Selected Readings in American LiteratureM. Tianjing:Nankai UniversityPress,1999.7. Poe, Edgar Allan. The Tell-Tale Heart and Other WritingsM. Toronto: Bantam Books, 19828. Punter David. The Literature of Terror The Gothic TraditionM. London:LongmanLondon,1996.9. 埃德加爱伦坡, 埃德加爱伦坡惊险故事新编M，济南，山东文艺出版
30、社，2000.10. 马爱农. 爱伦坡短篇小说选M, 外文出版社, 2001.11. 韩加明.简论哥特小说的产生和发展J.国外文学,2000, (6), 32-39.12. 回杨著:当代哥特文化的内涵，特征及表现方式 J，西南民族大学学报，200513. 侯红娟著:怪诞诡异显才华一论爱伦坡的短篇小说 J，职大学报，2005, (1)14. 肖明翰.英美文学中的哥特传统J.外国文学评论,2001, (2), 21-34.15. 刘意青. 国 18 世纪文学史M, 学与研究出版社，2006.16. 王光林译编，欧洲文学的背景M，罗德霍尔顿著, 重庆出版社，1991.Schedule of writing1. Choose the topic of the thesis in December.2. Hand the first version of the thesis in the early March.3. Present the second and final versions of the thesis in April.4. Hand the Research Proposal before thesis defense which take on in the early May.5. Thesis shall be filed in the later May.
