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Unit2 Edgar Allan Poe

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Unit 2 Edgar Allen Poe (1809-1849)
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The American Romanticism
I. What is Romanticism
Originated in the second half of the 18th century, romanticism was a key movement in the Counter-Enlightenment, a reaction against the Age of Enlightenment. Romanticism emphasized intuition, imagination, and feeling, to a point that has led to some Romantic thinkers being accused of irrationalism.
Romanticism focuses on Nature; a place free from society's judgement and restrictions. Romanticism blossomed after the age of Rationalism, a time that focused on handwork and scientific reasoning.

Washington Irving and James Fenimore Cooper, and those of the late period contain Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Edgar Allan Poe.

II.Features of American romanticism

Edgar Allen Poe(1809 - 1849) the most controversial and most misunderstood literary figure. a Bohemian(吉普赛人), depraved(堕落) and demonic(恶魔的), a villain(恶棍) with no virtue at all.
Mark Twain declared his prose to be unreadable.
But Eliot proclaimed him a critic of the first rank.
He enjoyed respect and welcome greatly in Europe.
He is the father of psychoanalytic criticism. In deed, Poe places the subconscious condition of the mind under investigation and probes beneath the surface of normal existence.
What interests him most is the deep abyss of the unconsciousand subconscious mental activity of the people,
His theories for the short story and poetry are remarkable.
He was the first author in American literature to make the neurotic(神经质的) the heroic figure, the protagonist, in his stories.
As a short story writer, Poe was a fascinating man of imagination interested in deduction and induction. And half a dozen of his stories belong to Ratiocinative(推理的)
Poe’s style is traditional but he is difficult to read.
Edgar Allan Poe was a master of the

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