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Edgar Allan Poe And The Macabre

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Edgar Allan Poe was born January 19, 1809 in Boston, MA and died on October 7, 1849 in Baltimore, MD. He led a life of deep heartache. He was orphaned as a child only a year after he was born, adopted by his stoic non-supportive father figure John Allan, a scottish tobacco exporter and dry-goods merchant. He gave Edgar constant grief over debt and educational pricing, but Poe took the morbid dark and secret reaches of the human psyche and turned it into beautifully renowned pieces of literature. During his early years Edgar observed John Allan in his work which gave him “an understanding of the value of information and that literature was a commodity produced by sale in the capitalist marketplace.” (Felicia Burdescu, Michaela Prioteasa, Shaping …show more content…
His preference for short literary works shows it’s obvious he did not “gamble” like the rest of his fellow writers, such as his innovation of connecting art and environment. Recent critics have focused on his literary method; Poe has tackled the problem of a pieces of work relying so heavily on risque elements.

Poe is known as “The Father of the Macabre,” as he is a “skilled craftsman of grotesque tales and romantic fantasies,” (shaping many into one). However, Poe was more than a horror story and poem writer, in fact his oeuvre includes editor, literary critic, satirist, hoaxer, mystery writer, pioneer in the Sci-Fi (science-fiction) genre, poet, and playwright. Poe created an “aesthetic theory, setting the basis to American scepticism through the first person narrative, “ (shaping many into one).

Poes’ had a connection to the American culture and improved upon American literature through his philosophy of composition, celebrating a liaison between artistic autonomy and productivity, mainly prose fiction. he also believes that “the power of words expresses the concept of endless productivity,” (poe …show more content…
he was against advocating any implicit or explicit limits to the publishing industry, finding more interest in social knowledge. The majority of his natural life was to adapt to the mass culture, but transferred over to an apocalyptic embrace. John allan did not support him financially, as he did not support poes’ aspirations of being a romanticist author, feeling poe did not appreciate the education he was bestowed. However despite his trials and tribulations, he turned out to be America’s first important writer, through his portrayal of brutality and ignoring the events of american past he was able to attract the attention of all different varieties of consumers/readers. even acclaimed american romanticism author Walt Whitman recognized Poes’

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