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However, though Poe is considered a distinguished writer in American literature and develops his unique theories of creation, he did not receive much attention in his times. Therefore, there is no doubt that his extraordinary writing techniques are waiting for us to discover and deserve our careful appreciation.
Chapter 2. Literature Review
2.1 Edgar Allen Poe’s Principles of Creation
When the name of Edgar Allen Poe is mentioned, the term “aesthetic” will inevitably come to people’s mind because some of his resounding statements make him a significant figure in the field of study of aesthetics. And he is also connected with the cultural movement called “aestheticism” in the period of Romanticism Movement in the 19th century. The next generation honored him an unique label “Art for art’s sake” because of his indelible contribution to the aesthetic theory. According to Rachel Polonsky who wrote an article about Poe’s aesthetic theory, readers can better understand the work of a writer and his writing principles if they know something about the writer’s life experience. (范春燕,2005)It is known that Poe’s life is overwhelmed with a variety of hardships and sufferings. The successive departure of his kinsfolk and the deterioration of physical health have such a huge influence upon his view on death that Allen Poe is obsessed with exploring the horrible beauty by writing a lot of Gothic horror stories about ghosts, murderer and death, thus forming his unique creation principle and aesthetic theory.
However, the particular word “aesthetic” does not appear in any of his works. As a matter of fact, Poe accomplished his artistic masterpieces in accordance with his own theory “Philosophy of Composition”, which is a principle created to distinguish art and fiction. This standard was put forward by Poe to judge whether a piece of work can become a piece of art. On the basis of this principle, the writer should make it clear that what the writing purpose is, what kind of effect the work should achieve, and how the readers would response to this work before he sets about to write. With the awareness of readers in mind, Allen Poe is considered the first novelist who realized the importance of readers’ responses throughout the history of American literature. Besides, Poe strongly insists that it is the author’s duty to explore a perfect way to attain the intended effect conceived by the author before writing and authors have the ability to achieve this goal as long as the theme, plot, settings, characters and central conflicts are elaborately and comprehensively taken into consideration.
Plonsky also holds the view that Poe’s aesthetic theory develops from “philosophy of Composition”, which showed its first appearance in Graham’s Magazine in April 1846 and is considered one of the most excellent examples of literature criticism. In this essay, he treats unity of effect as an important principle for excellent writing. Poe’s famous poem “The Raven” is an illustration of his unique creation theory, which is opposite toward the spontaneous creation raised by the Lake Poet Coleridge.