Abstract
Edgar Allan Poe invented the detective story. He also virtually invented the English short story itself, as well as propounding an anti-didactic, anti-mimetic theory of ‘the poem for the poem’s sake’ which looked forward to the aesthetic concentrations and distillations of early modernism. The connections between these facts will be a continuing concern of this book, and accordingly I propose to approach Poe’s detective fiction first by way of his literary theory and then by way of his more general practice as a writer of short stories.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
See Richard Wilbur, ‘Edgar Allan Poe’ in his Responses (New York and London, 1976) p. 59.
See Roman Jakobson, ‘Two Aspects of Language and Two Types of Aphasic Disturbance’, in Roman Jakobson and Morris Halle, Fundamentals of Language (The Hague and Paris, 1956 and 1971) pp. 90–6.
See John Walsh, Poe the Detective: The Curious Circumstances Behind ‘The Mystery of Marie Roger’ (New Brunswick, 1968).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 1991 Martin Priestman
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Priestman, M. (1991). Poe. In: Detective Fiction and Literature. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-20987-3_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-20987-3_3
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-20989-7
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-20987-3
eBook Packages: Palgrave Literature & Performing Arts CollectionLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)