The Afterlife of Edgar Allan Poe

Literary Criticism in Perspective

by Scott Peeples

Controversies abound in studies of Edgar Allan Poe. From the time of his death well into the twentieth century, partisans debated the issue of his was he an alcoholic? drug addict? pathological liar? necrophile? In the 1920s and 30s, psychoanalytic critics sought to divorce the study of Poe from Victorian moral concerns but in the process made scandalous claims by linking Poe's dream-like stories to his personality. The status of Poe's literary productions was similarly disputed; dismissed by the New Critics but championed by poets such as William Carlos Williams and Allen Tate. Recent scholars have debated the meaning and significance of Poe's representations of race, class, and gender, often returning to the character how racist and misogynist was he, and how important are those questions to understanding his work? Finally, how have the seemingly countless plays, films, novels, comic books, and pop music experiments based on his image and works intertwined with academic study of Poe? This book examines these and other controversies, shedding light on broader issues of canon formation, the role of biography in literary study, and the importance of integrating various, even conflicting interpretations into one's own reading of a literary work. This book will be of great interest to Poe scholars, both those who have been a part of the literary battles described above and newcomers to the field who can use the book as a guide to the field of Poe studies, and to all those interested in Poe and his work.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Biography, Literary Criticism

199 pages, Hardcover

First published November 28, 2003

Reviews

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Stars
Preface ✔
1: The Man That Was Used Up: Poe’s Place in American Literature, 1849–1909 4⭐
The following are quotes from this chapter that summarizes Poe's growth in popularity over the years.
"I believe [Rufus] Griswold [in his malicious Memoir] did more good than harm to Poe’s long-term popularity by stimulating a character debate that kept people writing about Poe for decades, keeping prospective readers curious and thereby keeping Poe very very much in print."(5)
" . . . by [nineteenth century criticism] depicting Poe’s life as a cautionary tale appropriate for Sunday School books or representing his character as the material for courtroom drama, these early commentators helped make Poe a better-known character than any of his fictional creations, establishing for him a place in American popular culture that transcends his work to a degree that has been matched only by Mark Twain and Ernest Hemingway" (p. 7-8)

2: A Dream Within a Dream: Poe and Psychoanalysis 3.5⭐
"Theorists and critics quickly recognized the opportunities Poe presented for psychoanalytic study, given his fiction’s emphasis on hidden motives and detection, altered states of consciousness, sadism, and obsession, as well as the self-destructive tendencies he exhibited in his own life." (p.30)

Yep, Poe's literary works provide a mother lode of psychoanalytic fodder for those who seek this route in understanding the life and mind that was the genius of Poe.

3: Out of Space, Out of Time: From Early Formalism to Deconstruction 3⭐
Criticisms of Poe's work by modernist poet/critics of this era Aldous Huxley, Yvor Winters, Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren in the 1930's, T. S. Eliot and Allen Tate in the 1940's, Charles Feidelson, Harry Levin and Edward Davidson in the 1950's, David Halliburton, David Kettererin the 1970's and others in the following decades listed ad nauseam. This chapter is Peeples summary of critics who in his own words "taught the rest of us how to read Poe — an isolated
artist, out of place, out of time."

4: The Man of the Crowd: The Socio-Historical Poe 3⭐
Criticisms starting in the 1980's with emphasis toward race, gender, class, and economics, as a key point of discussion in studying Poe. In conclusion Peeples states that "most of the critics I’ve [Peeples] referred to in this chapter make reasonable, if debatable, arguments that Poe’s work becomes even more compelling when read in terms of antebellum social and political issues." (119)

5: Lionizing: Poe as Cultural Signifier 3⭐
In this chapter Peeples explores books, plays, films and comics in which "Poe’s influence on modernism and postmodernism is impossible to measure or summarize, but it seems reasonable to claim that Poe’s greatest contribution to arts and literature, popular or otherwise, has been delivered through artists who refer to or interpret him as they challenge established forms, a list that would include poets Charles Baudelaire, Stéphane Mallarmé, Paul Valéry, Wallace Stevens, Allen Ginsberg, and Richard Wilbur; filmmakers Jean Epstein, Luis Buñel, and Alfred Hitchcock; visual artists Édouard Manet, Odilon Redon, Aubrey Beardsley, and René Magritte; composer/musicians Claude Debussy, Philip Glass, and Lou Reed; fiction writers Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Guy de Maupassant, J. D. Salinger, Vladimir Nabokov, Jorge Luis Borges, Carlos Fuentes, Ishmael Reed, Paul Auster, Richard Powers, Don DeLillo, Joyce Carol Oates, John Barth, and Margaret Atwood." (144)

Afterword: Loss of Breath: Writing Poe’s Last Days 3.5⭐

[Nancy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Finished: 26.09.2019
Genre: non-fiction
Rating: D-
#RIPXIV Challenge
Conclusion:
I wanted to like this book but
Scott Peeples made it very difficult.
Here is why....

My Thoughts

[Irina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Extremely will researched and extensively cited book. It was a little difficult to read as a result of all the constant citations and references. It is very detailed and digs deeply into how Poe has influenced many since the time of his death. The book discusses how he became the icon he is and speculates how he has received the reputation he has. Very good book, just a little too “zoomed in” for me, if that makes sense. I almost wanted less information about others and more about Poe himself. This book delves more into how his works and persona inspired others. Definitely work reading if you want to learn how Poe has influenced pop culture, writers and fans alike.

[Abby Cummings · Rating 3 out of 5]

A throughly researched and well written book.

[Phil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Peeples’s book provides a fascinating overview of literary criticism of Poe since his death. It’s a fairly short book, so likely doesn’t cover every little thing, but seems to hit the major areas of Poe scholarship (though to be fair, I’m not a scholar by any means so Peeples could be leaving out a whole lot of stuff and I wouldn’t know). Peeples does a good job of explaining the major players and what their points were. He also writes in an accessible way, so the book is hardly ever boring. The Afterlife of Edgar Allan Poe is definitely recommended for anyone with more than a passing interest in Poe.