Poe's Theory of Beauty

IN THE COURSE of his efforts to determine the relationship between and literary art Poe developed a comprehensive theory of which pervades his critical thought, imparting to it a curious originality and a remarkable consistency. In fact, to analyze Poe's theory'-of is to analyze at least partially his theory of poetry and his theory of literature; for despite the sharp distinctions that Poe liked to draw between poetry and prose fiction, he tended to regard all literature as subsumed in his generic concept of poetry-a concept which he drew directly from his theory of beauty. As the basic principles of Poe's theory reveal themselves under semantic analysis, the several senses in which Poe used the term beauty become increasingly significant and logically interrelated. Poe sometimes meant one thing by the term beauty and sometimes another,' but in each different use the context guides us toward the proper sense. However, before a particular context can render clearly a particular meaning, it is first necessary to discover a central meaning for in Poe's theory to which his other meanings for can be related. Thus the first step in analyzing Poe's theory of is to clarify his terminology by determining his basic substantive meaning for the word beauty; thereafter, the basic principles and semantic complexities of Poe's theory can be examined in detail

Aesthetics · Beauty · Consistency (knowledge bases) · Context (archaeology) · Creativity · Epistemology · Linguistics · Meaning (existential) · Originality · Poetry · Terminology · Color perception and design · History · Literary Theory and Cultural Hermeneutics · Literary, Cultural, Historical Analysis · Mathematics · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology

• Divination and Comparison

  Miriam Fernández-Santiago•Poetics Today•2016

  Incluir item