A study of the controversy-filled scholarship on Poe from the time of
his death to the present.
Controversies abound in studies of Edgar Allan Poe. From the time of his
death well into the twentieth century, partisans debated the issue of
his character: was he an alcoholic? drug addict? pathological liar?
necrophile? In the1920s and 30s, psychoanalytic critics sought to
divorce the study of Poe from Victorian moral concerns but in the
process made scandalous claims by linking Poe's dream-like stories to
his personality. The status of Poe's literaryproductions was similarly
disputed; dismissed by the New Critics but championed by poets such as
William Carlos Williams and Allen Tate. Recent scholars have debated the
meaning and significance of Poe's representations of race, class, and
gender, often returning to the character issue: how racist and
misogynist was he, and how important are those questions to
understanding his work? Finally, how have the seemingly countless plays,
films, novels, comic books, and pop music experiments based on his image
and works intertwined with academic study of Poe? This book examines
these and other controversies, shedding light on broader issues of canon
formation, the role of biography in literary study, and the importance
of integrating various, even conflicting interpretations into one's own
reading of a literary work. This book will be of great interest to Poe
scholars, both those who have been a part of the literary battles
described above and newcomers to the field who can use the book as a
guide to the field of Poe studies, and to all those interested in Poe
and his work.
Scott Peeples is Associate Professor of English at theCollege of
Charleston.
