LE3 .A278 2001

2001

Narbeshuber, Lisa

Acadia University

Master of Arts

Masters

English

English & Theatre Studies

Edgar Allan Poe's tales are almost always divided into the two categories of detective and terror. This division has become an accepted generalization, so much so that many seem to have lost sight of the fact that the source of both the tales of terror and the detective fiction of Edgar Allan Poe is the same author with the same world view. The underlying anxiety of Poe's fiction is the pain of separation from, and a desire for reunion with, the divine source of creation. This anxiety is the source of tension, terror, madness, fragmentation, and death wish in Poe's tales. This idea, though variously explored in imaginative tales, finally manifests itself in the form of a serious philosophical statement in 'Eureka ' (1848). Both chronologically and philosophically, 'Eureka ' finalizes Poe's tales. In the form of a philosophical statement, ' Eureka' summarizes the anxiety of the tales. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

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