Poe's Pym : critical explorations

Author(s)

• Kopley, Richard

Bibliographic Information

Poe's Pym : critical explorations

edited by Richard Kopley

Duke University Press, 1992

• : cloth
• : pbk

Note

Includes bibliographical references (p. 266-274) and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

"The interpreter's dream-text," as one critic called Edgar Allan Poe's The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym has prompted critical approaches almost as varied as the experiences it chronicles. This is the first book to deal exclusively with Pym, Poe's longest fictional work and in many ways his most ambitious. Here leading Poe scholars provide solutions and interpretations for many challenging enigmas in this mysterious novel. The product of a decade of research and planning, Poe's "Pym" offers a factual basis for some of the most fantastic elements in the novel and uncovers surprising connections between Poe's text and exploration literature, nautical lore, Arthurian narrative, nineteenth-century journalism, Moby Dick, and other writings. Representing a rich cross-section of current modes of literary study-from source study to psychoanalytic criticism to new historicism-these sixteen essays probe issues such as literary influence, the limits of language, racism, the holocaust, prolonged mourning, and the structure of the human mind. Poe's "Pym" will be an invaluable resource for students of both contemporary criticism and nineteenth-century American culture. Contributors. John Barth, Susan F. Beegel, J. Lasley Dameron, Grace Farrell, Alexander Hammond, David H. Hirsch, John T. Irwin, J. Gerald Kennedy, David Ketterer, Joan Tyler Mead, Joseph J. Moldenhauer, Carol Peirce, Burton R. Pollin, Alexander G. Rose III, John Carlos Rowe, G. R. Thompson, Bruce I. Weiner

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix Conference Attendees xi Note Regarding Frequently Cited Books xiii Introduction / Richard Kopley 1 "Mutiny and Atrocious Butchery": The Globe Mutiny as a Source for Pym / Susan F. Beegel 7 Poe's "Manual of 'Seamanship'" / Joan Tyler Mead 20 Pym's Polar Episode: Conclusion or Beginning? / J. Lasley Dameron 33 Novels, Tales, and Problems of Form in The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym / Bruce I. Weiner 44 Poe's Reading of Myth: The White Vision of Arthur Gordon Pym / Carol Peirce and Alexander G. Rose III 57 Pym, The DIghton Rock, and the Matter of Vinland / Joseph J. Moldenhauer 75 Poe's Life Reflected through the Sources of Pym / Burton R. Pollin 95 Mourning in Poe's Pym / Grace Farrell 107 Poe, Antebellum Slavery, and Modern Criticism / John Carlos Rowe 117 "Postmodern" or Post-Auschwitz: The Case of Poe / David H. Hirsch 141 Consumption, Exchange, and the Literary Marketplace: From the Folio Club Tales to Pym / Alexander Hammond 153 Pym Pourri: Decomposing the Textual Body / J. Gerald Kennedy 167 The Quincuncial Network in Poe's Pym / John T. Irwin 175 The Arabesque Design of Arthur Gordon Pym / G.R. Thompson 188 "Still Farther South": Some Notes on Poe's Pym / John Barth 217 Tracing Shadows: Pym Criticism, 1980-1990 / David Ketterer 233 Notes 275 Contributors 329 Index 333

by "Nielsen BookData"

Details

• NCID: BA18476773
• ISBN:
  • 0822312352
  • 0822312468
• LCCN: 92002775
• Country Code: us
• Title Language Code: eng
• Text Language Code: eng
• Place of Publication: Durham ; London
• Pages/Volumes: xiii, 354 p.
• Size: 23 cm
• Classification:
  • LCC : PS2618.N33
  • DC20 : 813/.3
  • DC20 : 818.3
• Subject Headings:
  • LCSH : Poe, Edgar Allan, 1809-1849. Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym