Abstract The Black Cat is one of the most representative Gothic novels written by Edgar Allan Poe which inherits the essence of Gothic novel from many aspects like the theme of death, the mysterious and horrific atmosphere and the arrangement of setting and time. While, Poe’s unique artistic creations makes The Black Cat a different one compared with traditional Gothic novels. This paper is intend to take The Black Cat as an example, on the basic of expounding Poe’s inheritance of the Gothic novel, to discuss Poe’s own development from the following aspects: the theory of unified effect, psychological analysis, Modernism and detective novels. It is these unique innovations that further perfect the popular mode of Gothic novel and cause Gothic novel to reach a higher psychological level, increasing the charm of horror fiction. Therefore, Edgar Allan Poe’s works had had a profound influence on the other writers and made a great contribution to the development of British and American literature.58309

Keywords: The Black Cat；Gothic novel；inheritance；development

摘要《黑猫》是爱伦坡最具代表性的一篇哥特小说，从死亡主题，神秘、恐怖的气氛，和场景、时间的设置方面继承了哥特小说的精髓，但爱伦坡独特的艺术创作又使这篇小说不等同于传统的哥特小说。本文旨在以《黑猫》为例，在阐述坡对哥特小说继承的基础上，从统一效果论，心理分析，现代主义和推理小说方面探讨爱伦坡对哥特小说的革新。正是这些独特的创新使哥特小说的流行模式更加完善，且使哥特小说达到了新的心理深度，增加了小说的恐怖魅力。因此，爱伦·坡对英美其他文学家的作品产生了深刻影响,对英美文学的发展做出了巨大的贡献。

毕业论文关键词：《黑猫》；哥特小说；继承；发展

Contents

  1. Introduction...........1

  2. Literature Review.....1

  2.1 Review of Domestic Studies.............2

  2.2 Review of Foreign Studies ..................................3

  3. Poe’s inheritance of Gothic novel in The Black Cat...........4

  3.1 The Theme of Death.....4

  3.2 The Arrangement of Scene and Time...................5

  3.3 The Atmosphere of Mystery and Terror............................................................6

  4. Poe’s development of the Traditional Gothic in The Black Cat............7

  4.1 The Theory of Unified Effect.......................7

  4.2 Combination between Gothic Novels and psychological analysis.................11

  4.3 The Application of Modernistic Elements .....................................................12

  4.4 Creation of the Detective Novel.....................................................................14

  5. Conclusion...............15

  Works Cited.............16

1. Introduction 

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1809) is a famous American poet, novelist and literary critic. He engaged in the literary creation at the height of romanticism of American literature. However, because his works were filled with horrific and weird style which was incompatible with the American society at that time, he did not get understanding and acceptance from the literary circle and coruscate dazzling brilliance until the end of the 19th century. 

“Poe advocates a kind of highly consciousness and idealistic writing theory which on the whole is the nineteenth century’s romanticism theory.” (Pen Guiju, Xion Ronbin and Yu Fei, 1999:9）However, Edgar Allan Poe, a complex contradiction condensed with high fantasy and rigorous logic, insists that the artistic creation technique can be interpreted from the aspects of logic and rationality. And this view in the other romanticists’eyes appears very ridiculous.