Journal Article•
Reading and Not Reading 'The Man of the Crowd': Poe, the City, and the Gothic Text
TL;DR: Poe's "The Man of the Crowd" as mentioned in this paper is considered a counterpart to "The Purloined Letter" in cultural theory and has been particularly valued as a kind of sociological document which reveals and critiques aspects of the scopic and material conditions of the modern city.
Abstract: Poe’s ‘The Man of the Crowd’, as Patricia Merivale has observed, be justifiably be considered a counterpart to ‘The Purloined Letter’ in its significance in cultural theory. It has been particularly valued as a kind of sociological document which reveals and critiques aspects of the scopic and material conditions of the modern city.Yet despite an almost universal acknowledgement that the tale is about ‘reading’, most critics have worked with a rather impoverished model of reading. Following the example of Tom Gunning, who has argued that the tale provides premonitions of a range of spectator positions in cinema, this essay argues that the story dramatizes typical responses to the literary text which are more complex than the flan flanerie. To place the text in a more explicitly literary context opens it up to an analysis which takes account of how complex its structure is, and the fact that the narrator has typically-Poe-esque ‘delusional’ credentials, and acknowledge how this might compromise or complicate some of the arguments about urban reading. As such it demands to be considered in terms of the capacity of Poe’s fiction to seduce readers into what Joseph Kronick has called, ‘identifying the intepretation with the text’, particularly in relation to the particular self-reflexive effect Garrett Stewart has termed the ‘gothic of reading’.
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TL;DR: The authors examines critical practices at work in the interpretation of Poe's canonical piece "The Man of the Crowd" in light of the recent debates in literary studies around the problem of context and contextualization in general and the "hegemony" of new historicism in particular.
Abstract: Poe's adherence to a strict aesthetic formalism used to be problematic for studies of the relationship between his work and its American context; the methodology of New Historicism has helped to surmount this problem but sometimes with excessive emphasis on socio-historical contexts. This essay examines critical practices at work in the interpretation of Poe's canonical piece "The Man of the Crowd" in light of the recent debates in literary studies around the problem of context and contextualization in general and the "hegemony" of new historicism in particular. It then suggests an alternative method of reading literary texts and their contexts — one based on Reinhart Koselleck's history of concepts. It offers an analysis of "The Man of the Crowd" as an illustration of this method.
3 citations
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Book•
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01 Jan 1999
TL;DR: Translators' Foreword Exposes Paris, the Capital of the Nineteenth Century (1935) "Paris, the City of the Twenty-First Century" (1939) Convolutes Overview First Sketches Early Drafts "Arcades" "The Arcades of Paris" 'The Ring of Saturn" Addenda Expose of 1935, Early Version Materials for the Expose and Exposition of 1935 Materials for Arcades' "Dialectics at a Standstill," by Rolf Tiedemann "The Story of Old Benjamin," by Lisa Fitt
Abstract: Translators' Foreword Exposes "Paris, the Capital of the Nineteenth Century" (1935) "Paris, Capital of the Nineteenth Century" (1939) Convolutes Overview First Sketches Early Drafts "Arcades" "The Arcades of Paris" "The Ring of Saturn" Addenda Expose of 1935, Early Version Materials for the Expose of 1935 Materials for "Arcades" "Dialectics at a Standstill," by Rolf Tiedemann "The Story of Old Benjamin," by Lisa Fittko Translators' Notes Guide to Names and Terms Index
2,991 citations
Book•
21 Aug 1986
TL;DR: The painter of modern life Edgar Allan Poe -his life and works further notes on Edgar Poe Wagner and Tannhauser in Paris on the essence of laughter some French caricature artists some foreign caricaturists a philosophy of toys philosophic art as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Introduction by the editor the painter of modern life Edgar Allan Poe - his life and works further notes on Edgar Poe Wagner and Tannhauser in Paris on the essence of laughter some French caricaturists some foreign caricaturists a philosophy of toys philosophic art
590 citations
Book•
26 Aug 2010
TL;DR: It is doubtless an excellent thing to study the old masters in order to learn how to paint; but it can be no more than a waste of labour if someone's aim is to understand the special nature of present-day beauty as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: It is doubtless an excellent thing to study the old masters in order to learn how to paint; but it can be no more than a waste of labour if someone's aim is to understand the special nature of present-day beauty. The draperies of Rubens or Veronese will in no way teach he/she how to depict moire antique, satin a la reine or any other fabric of modern manufacture, which we see supported and hung over crinoline or starched muslin petticoat. For any 'modernity' to be worthy of one day taking its place as 'antiquity', it is necessary for the mysterious beauty. By 'modernity' the author mean the ephemeral, the fugitive, the contingent, the half of art whose other half is the eternal and the immutable. Every old master has had his own modernity; the great majority of fine portraits that have come down to us from former generations are clothed in the costume of their own period.
323 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1990
TL;DR: Kasson as mentioned in this paper presented the utter variant of this book in txt, PDF, ePub, doc, and DjVu forms, which can read Rudeness and Civility: Manners in Nineteenth Century Urban America online or load.
Abstract: If searched for a ebook by John F. Kasson Rudeness and Civility: Manners in Nineteenth-Century Urban America in pdf form, in that case you come on to the loyal website. We presented the utter variant of this book in txt, PDF, ePub, doc, DjVu forms. You may read Rudeness and Civility: Manners in Nineteenth-Century Urban America online or load. As well, on our site you can read guides and diverse art eBooks online, or load them as well. We will to invite regard what our site does not store the eBook itself, but we grant url to website whereat you can load or reading online. If you want to downloading pdf Rudeness and Civility: Manners in Nineteenth-Century Urban America by John F. Kasson, then you have come on to the correct website. We have Rudeness and Civility: Manners in Nineteenth-Century Urban America txt, DjVu, PDF, doc, ePub forms. We will be happy if you revert to us over.
307 citations
TL;DR: Although readers of detective fiction ordinarily expect to learn the mystery's solution at the end, there is another kind of detective story that ends with a question rather than an answer as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Although readers of detective fiction ordinarily expect to learn the mystery's solution at the end, there is another kind of detective story -- whose history encompasses writers as diverse as Poe, Borges, Robbe-Grillet, Auster, and Stephen King -- that ends with a question rather than an answer. The detective not only fails to solve the crime, but also confronts insoluble mysteries of interpretation and identity. As the contributors to Detecting Texts contend, such stories belong to a distinct genre, the metaphysical detective story, in which the detective hero's inability to interpret the mystery inevitably casts doubt on the reader's similar attempt to make sense of the text and the world.
115 citations