4。 Poe’s literary devices for the “sublime” effect。8

 4。1 Symbol 8

 4。2 Suspense。。10

 4。3 Setting and atmosphere10

 4。4 Open ending。11

 4。5 The first-person viewpoint。。。12

5。 Conclusion15

6。 References。16

1。 Introduction

Gothic is a kind of literary genre which has been through colorful development, persified influence and controversial criticism。 Like a stream, the gothic originates from many other genres，and in its flowing through today, it has fostered quite a few popular genres and influenced a large amount of important writers．It is unbelievable to find it that the flourishing of a genre can be so extensive and eternal。 Visibly, gothic has its own continuous popularity which has been saw through clearly by Leslie Fiedler in his conclusion of the ‘Introduction’ to his influential Love and Death in the American Novel in this way: “The final horrors, as the modern society has come to realize, are neither god nor demons, but intimate aspects of our minds。” (Fiedler,1960：xxiv) 

The uniqueness of history and culture of the South has offered a fertile land for the gothic to survive and grow．Edgar Allan Poe, as one of the most unique writers in American Southern literature has made important contribution to the development of the gothic literature．论文网

The background of Poe’s creation of so many outstanding gothic fictions is constructed by Poe’s special personal life experience and his worship to the traditional British gothic novels as well as the heritage to the tradition of American literature。

2。 Poe’s gothicism

Edgar Allan Poe(1809-1849) is one of towering figures in America。 Because his writing technique and literary theories absolutely differ from the mainstream of his age, he has been experienced a lot of controversy and misunderstanding for a long time。 It was until the 20th century that the significance of Poe’s literary creations had been admitted universally by the academic world。 However, Poe receives overwhelming popularity in Europe and Latin America。 Poe’s literary reputation is shaped by the French symbolists such as Baudelaire(1821-1876), Mallarme(1842-1898), and Valley(1871-1945)。 And in addition, his literary achievements were appreciated and acknowledged by many major European writers such as Swinburne(1837-1909), Bernard Shaw(1856-1950), Rilke(1875-1926) and Dostoevsky(1821-1881)。 Poe’s huge impact gets widely spread all over the world from France。 A large amount of Poe experts appears, and the world is filled with the wave of craziness about Poe’s work, including China。 Poe’s tales and poems have been translated into Chinese and influence many Chinese writers to some different extent。 Today, Poe has been globally recognized as the precursor of modernistic writings，originator of the short stories, forerunner of psychoanalytic criticism and father of modem detective stories。 In American literary history, Poe occupies an irreplaceable status。 “In the sphere of pure literature．Poe’s poetics has nurtured the rapid population of quite a number of men of letters，American and European”(陈良廷，1982：4)，‘"Within the domain of popular culture, the impact of Poe’s literary works finds its expression not only in the enormous rise after him of the genre of detective stories，adventure stories and science fictions，but in the prosperity of the Poe-relevant meta-popular culture as well”(Neimeyer,2002：207)．

Many writers of Poe’s age like Irving and Cooper adopt a romantic tone to depict the America in its childhood。 Emerson is a forerunner of transcendentalism。 Hawthorne observed and analyzed the American society from the perspective of good and evil。 Whitman eulogize the naiveté and youth of America。 Edgar Allen Poe deals mostly with themes like killing, violence, death, nightmare and evil。 In his lifetime, he created more than seventy short stories, among which twenty are well known all over the world。 And among these twenty works, four of them are detective fictions, all the others are horror fictions。 The theme in Poe’s short stories varies from death, murder, revenge and so forth。 It is these various aspects help to reduce Poe to a stand where romanticism remains and modernism gradually cut a figure。