On the Horror Effect of Allan Poes Short Stories: two case studies of The Cask of Amontillado and The Fall of the House of Usher开题报告

 2022-07-29 14:21:19

1. 研究目的与意义

Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer and literary critic best known for his poetry and short stories. Due to his extraordinary skills in creating the effect of horror and tension, it is universally acknowledged that his detective and horror stories are very popular among readers all over the world. His works form a whole that reflect Poe himself and his life in that period, from which researchers can definitely know more about this great author.Poe attached great importance to readers#8217; experience or emotions during or after reading his works. His poems and short stories have an uncontrollable glamour to lead readers to the plots, which is not only because of the unnerving themes like revenge and death or dramatic plots of those short stories, but also because of his outstanding literary techniques and abundant vocabulary used to create the horrible atmosphere. Also, the unity of effect, one of his literary theories which states that every detail or word in the story should serve the effect expected, forged Allan Poe#8217;s unique literary style. The theory is still of value when it comes to literary writing nowadays. So it is meaningful and enlightening to study his techniques and writing style. In addition, death, which is usually the theme of Poe#8217;s short stories, is a theme that can probably best reflect human nature. Readers can recognize that his horror stories do portrait part of the society and people in the 19th century. It is thought-provoking to find that the frailties of the characters in his short stories can still be found in current society.To sum up, Allan Poe was undoubtedly a romantic giant in American literature and his works can definitely tell us more in the 21th century, not only about literary writing, but also about human beings.

2. 研究内容和预期目标

This paper will analyze the horror effect created in Edgar Allan Poe#8217;s two representative short stories-- The Cask of Amontillado and The Fall of the House of Usher. The analysis includes the way of creating the atmosphere in Poe#8217;s horror stories by applying his writing theory and literary techniques, the inspiration of his writing, and the significance of his works in today#8217;s literary world. Outline:1.Introduction2.Themes and plots3.Narrative Perspective4.Characters4.1 Montresor4.2 Fortunato4.3 Roderick Usher and Lady Madeline4.4 The narrator5.Syntactic and Lexical Features6.Figures of Speech 6.1 Symbolism 6.2 Irony 6.3 Metaphor 6.4 Pun 6.5 Alliteration7. Poe#8217;s Inspirations and Significance of his works8. ConclusionReferences

3. 国内外研究现状

When it comes to Edgar Allan Poe#8217;s horror stories, such as his representative works The Cask of Amontillado and The Fall of the House of Usher, scholars and researchers focused on themes, Poe#8217;s writing style and artistic techniques, the human nature reflected by characters, and horror effect which is linked to his theory of unity of effect. First and foremost, Poe#8217;s horror stories have a common theme -- death. Some researchers focused on Poe#8217;s literary techniques used to explore the theme of death, while others analyzed reasons for Poe#8217;s preference to that theme. Cao[曹曼](2005) studied Poe#8217;s artistic structures, including the background setting, the design of plots and narrative perspectives to show Poe#8217;s pursuit of the theme of death. Wang[王步先](2010) enumerated Poe#8217;s representative short stories and poems related to death, and gave brief social and personal reasons why Poe was so absorbed in depicting the theme. Zhu[朱晓宁](2006) proposed that Poe#8217;s passion for the theme of death was mainly due to his life experiences, personalities, the literary theory of the unity of effect and his unique aesthetic ideas.The character, or human nature, is another aspect of studying Poe#8217;s horror stories. Scholars tried to figure out what Poe thought about human nature by studying the characters. Jiang[江浩](2011) analyzed Montresor, the murderer in the short story The Cask of Amontillado, citing many examples of Montresor#8217;s internal monologues and dialogues between Montresor and Fortunato. Li[李慧明](2006) claimed that it was a breakthrough for Poe to write about the split personality and frailty of human beings, with two case studies of Poe#8217;s The Tell-Tale Heart and The Cask of Amontillado.Additionally, Poe#8217;s extraordinary writing style and artistic techniques also attracted the attention of scholars and researchers. It was pointed out by Unrue(1995) that Poe was a romantic classicist, considering his classical education and the writing experience of different poems and short stories. Olson(1960) claimed that two strategies in Poe#8217;s The Fall of the House of Usher were emphasis on the feelings of the narrator and stress on the organic relationship between Usher, the main character, and the house. Li[李芳芳](2011) illustrated Poe#8217;s unique writing style with a case analysis of The Fall of the House of Usher, from the perspective of Gothic style, symbolism, and the theme of death. Huang[黄莹](2011) gave an analysis of Poe#8217;s Gothic novel style by introducing the origin of Gothic style and enumerating the Gothic elements in The Fall of the House of Usher. Of all the artistic techniques used by Poe in his works and literary theories, his unity of effect is considered to be Poe#8217;s most important principle in writing horror stories. Spitzer(1952) thought that Poe particularly insisted on describing the #8220;atmosphere#8221;, providing an analysis of the characters and setting in The Fall of the House of Usher. By analyzing the Gothic fate of the twins, Usher and Madeline, Stein(1960) discussed Poe#8217;s effect of horror and his psychological rationalization of the terror. Shi[史忆](2008) supported the view that the unity of effect made The Cask of Amontillado become a perfect short story, presenting a brief analysis of the themes of revenge and death, symbolism and irony, as well as the application of monologue. Poe#8217;s diction and vocabulary in his short stories were also studied by some scholars. Wu[吴佩娟](2006) demonstrated a stylistic analysis of The Cask of Amontillado, illustrating the function of syntactic and lexical features. Moreover, there were some scholars focusing on horrible images of Poe#8217;s short stories. It was proposed that the charm of Poe#8217;s horror effect can be understood from three main groups of images, namely groups of scene image, groups of beauty image and groups of animal image (Zhang[张玉娟]2012). However, although there have been many analyses about the horror effect in Poe#8217;s short stories, especially in The Cask of Amontillado, some details and aspects are deserves more exploration. In terms of The Fall of the House of Usher, there has been little comprehensive study of the horror effect in it. In addition, the inspiration of Allan Poe to cling to writing horror stories have not been taken seriously as well. In conclusion, Edgar Allan Poe#8217;s short stories such as The Cask of Amontillado and The Fall of the house of Usher have attracted the attention of many scholars and researchers. However, there is still something more about this great author himself and his short stories to be studied.

4. 计划与进度安排

2022.10.23--2022.11.05searching for the references and confirming the topic2022. 11.06--2022.11.26writing the research proposal2022.01.01--2022.01.21writing the first draft of the paper 2022.03.19--2022.04.29revising the first draft2022.04.30--2022.05.06submitting the final draft2022.05.14--2022.05.27the thesis defense

5. 参考文献

Olson, Bruce. (1960). Poe''s Strategy in 'The Fall of the House of Usher'. Modern Language Notes, 75(7), 556-559.Spitzer, Leo. (1952). A Reinterpretation of 'The Fall of the House of Usher'. Comparative Literature, 4(4), 351-363.Stein, William Bysshe. (1960). The Twin Motif in 'The Fall of the House of Usher'. Modern Language Notes, 75(2), 109-111. Unrue, Darlene Harbour. (1995). Edgar Allan Poe: The Romantic as Classicist. International Journal of the Classical Tradition, 1(4), 112-119.曹曼. (2005). 从#8220;效果说#8221;看爱伦#183;坡作品主题的艺术表现构架. 外国文学研究, 3:105-110 173.黄莹. (2011). 浅析爱伦坡的哥特式小说风格--《厄舍古屋的倒塌》中的哥特因素. 科技信息, 29: 582 587.江浩. (2011). 恐怖的心灵,阴暗的人性--浅析爱伦#183;坡《阿芒提拉多的酒桶》. 洛阳师范学院学报, 30(4): 51-55.李芳芳. (2011). 从《厄舍古屋的倒塌》看爱伦#183;坡的写作风格. 语文学刊#183;外语教育教学, 11: 41-42.李慧明. (2006). 爱伦#183;坡人性主题创作的问题意识探讨. 学术论坛, 5: 152-155. 史忆. (2008). 爱伦#183;坡的#8220;效果统一论#8221;在《一桶白葡萄酒》中的应用. 郑州航空工业管理学院学报(社会科学版), 27(3): 45-46.王步先. (2010). 爱伦#183;坡作品中的死亡主题浅析. 湖北广播电视大学学报, 30(10): 81-82.吴佩娟. (2006). 从文体学的角度看统一效果理论在《一桶白葡萄酒》中的体现. 吉林广播电视大学学报, 3: 17-19.朱晓宁. (2006). 死亡主题--埃德加#183;爱伦#183;坡作品研究. 沈阳大学学报, 18(3): 97-99.张玉娟. (2012). 骇人而美丽 恐怖而刺激--爱伦#183;坡恐怖小说的恐怖意象. 苏州教育学院学报, 29(5): 43-46.

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