Oaks-Moffett12/06/991

Oaks-Moffett12/06/992 Literature & Criticism history TEXT author TEXT reader reality

Oaks-Moffett12/06/993 Poe's Tragic Life ( ) u His mother is widowed at 18—Poe is fatherless u Two years after Poe’s birth, his mother dies u He is taken in by the Allens, but never adopted u At college Poe’s step-father financially abandons him u Mrs. Allen dies; Mr. Allen remarries u Makes a meager living writing profound literary criticism; meets Rufus Griswold u Marries Virginia Clemm—who dies young u Courts older women u Dies under strange circumstances

Oaks-Moffett12/06/994 European Romanticism u Individualism & Nonconformity u Nature-Worship u Primitivism u Interest in the Supernatural or Vanished Cultures

Oaks-Moffett12/06/995 u Interest in the Past or Medieval Times u Stress on Feeling and Erotica u Stress on Mysticism & Symbolism u An Apocalyptic Expectation u Emphasis on Imagination

Oaks-Moffett12/06/996 THEMES SPECIFIC TO POE u The Supernatural Heightened to the Grotesque u The Artist As a Superior Being u Vampirism u Doppelganger u Self-Destruction u Search for Identity