CiNii Books - Critical theory : the major documents

Edgar Allan Poe's reputation as an enduring and influential American literary critic rests mainly upon the pieces in this edition. Editors Stuart and Susan F. Levine provide reading texts, detailed explanatory footnotes, variant readings, and introductions to show context. They also face frankly the contradictions in Poe's critical opinions. Poe argues both that poetry is for pleasure, not truth, and that poetic inspiration leads to truth. Great works, Poe maintains, result from studied calculation, but also from irrational, supernal sources. Poe, both a biting critic and the doughty defender of American artistic achievement, was contemptuous of democratic art--except when vigorously defending it. Critical Theory highlights such conflicting ideas and suggests why they are present. What was consistent in Poe's work was not a single theory, but rather wit, playfulness, concern for the strong effect, a bin of recyclable allusions, anecdotes and quotations, and a craftsman's discipline. Poe's writing on theory is of a piece with his fiction, poetry, and journalism. The Levines explain how these critical statements also tie tightly to the social, political, economic, and technological history of the world in which Poe lived.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii Introduction ix Abbreviations xiii LETTER TO B------. 1 A Note on the Text 4 Letter to B--------. 5 A Note on Variant Readings 11 Notes 12 PROSPECTUSES FOR "THE PENN" AND "THE STYLUS" 21 Note on the Text of the Prospectuses of "The Penn Magazine" 22 The Earlier (Austin) Version of the Prospectus of "The Penn" 25 The Second (Philadelphia) Version of the Prospectus of "The Penn" 25 Note on the Second (Philadelphia) version of the Prospectus of "The Penn Magazine" 27 The March 4, 1843, Version of the Prospectus for "The Stylus" 28 Notes on the March 4, 1843, Version of the Prospectus for "The Stylus" 31 The January 1848 Version of the Prospectus for "The Stylus" 32 The April 1848 Version of the Prospectus for "The Stylus" 34 EXORDIUM 37 A Note on the Text 38 Exordium (Review of New Books) 39 Notes 44 PREFACE TO THE POEMS (1845) 51 A Note on the Text 52 Preface 52 THE PHILOSOPHY OF COMPOSITION 55 A Note on the Text 59 The Philosophy of Composition 60 Notes 71 THE RATIONALE OF VERSE 77 A Note on the Text 80 The Rationale of Verse 80 Variant Readings 121 Notes 127 NOTES UPON ENGLISH VERSE 145 A Note on the Text 146 Notes upon English Verse 147 Variant Readings 171 THE POETIC PRINCIPLE 175 A Note on the Text 177 The Poetic Principle 178 Notes 200 BIBLIOGRAPHY 213 INDEX 219

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Critical theory : the major documents

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