Poe - The Rationale of the Uncanny (Studies in Romantic and Modern Literature)

By Sybil Wuletich-Brinberg

In this revolutionary new study of Poe, Sybil Wuletich-Brinberg argues that in his fiction and poetry Poe made shocking personal disclosures about his life and his mind, though he personally denied having the courage and strength to do so and dared others to pen their confessions under the title My Heart Laid Bare. Exploring Poe's understanding of the uncanny, she refutes the basic premise of Marie Bonaparte's orthodox Freudian reading: that Poe was unaware and at the mercy of his unconscious. She demonstrates that, though he was ferociously self-destructive, Poe not only understood his pathology but, in fact, described the structure of the unconscious (the dialectical relationship between the return of the repressed and unconscious repression), fashioned his poetics from it with uttermost deliberation, dramatized it in the thoughts of his mad protagonists, and provided the key to decoding the meanings of his most baffling works.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0820406694
• ISBN13: 9780820406695
• Release Date: March 1988
• Publisher: Peter Lang Inc., International Academic Publishers
• Length: 223 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.8" x 0.8" x 6.0"