Poe's and race
Not what you're looking for?
In the following two scholarly articles, the authors discuss their views on whether Edgar Allan Poe was racist...or not.
Lee argues that Poe was a racist in his article "Absolute Poe: His System of Transcendental Racism". Kennedy and Weissberg argue that Poe was not racist in their article "Romancing the Shadow: Poe and Race". Provide an example from each article that the author gives to support his argument.
Based on the two articles above:
1) Summarize Lee's article
2) Summarize Kennedy and Weissberg's article
3) Critique the articles: Is Lee's argument correct? Kennedy's argument correct? What's wrong with their viewpoints? (in your opinion)
4) Using supporting evidence, prove why either Lee or Kennedy was correct in their argument.
Purchase this Solution
Solution Summary
Literary arguments for and against Poe as a racist are briefly compared in this posting.
Solution Preview
Welcome warmly to BrainMass! Please rate 5/5 for my ideas based on the attached pdf files:
Lee's argument that Poe was a racist permeates Absolute Poe: His System of Transcendental Racism." For example, Lee maintains that Poe's texts seem to involve a clear us versus them dichotomy that is highly bigoted. The writer claims that Poe's texts exude "a separate, masterful subjectivity by radically distancing others" (25). The writer further contends that Poe was highly influenced by unconscious thoughts and wrote "about the fraught relation between the hidden and recognized mind" (23). In other words, Lee interprets Poe's obsession with blackness, not merely as part of his gothic fascination but also as "...texts that may seem haunted by Poe's lurking racial phobias can be taken as complex dramatizations of a psychology of mastery and racism" (22).
The authors in "Romancing the Shadow: Poe and Race" dismiss claims that Poe was a racist. Instead, they allege that Poe's views were more of a production or publication tactic that Poe and other antebellum writers employed since "...average racism was not a sociological measurement of actual beliefs but rather a strategic construction designed to overcome political dissension in the emerging mass audience. In other words, publishers and commercial writers were seeking a form of racism acceptable to white readers who were otherwise divided over the more precise issue of slavery" (4). Facts that Poe even used his writing to explore the effects of fanaticism, not ...
Education
- BS , Slippery Rock University
- MA, Slippery Rock University
Recent Feedback
- "thk u"
- "Thank you. Posted one more.. if you are online pls help. "
- "thk u"
- "thk u"
- "thnk you"
Purchase this Solution
Free BrainMass Quizzes
Colon and Semi-Colon Usage
Appropriate use of a colon and semi-colon when writing brings clarity to your statement. Inappropriate use could cause confusion to the reader.
Shakespeare's Plays
Do you know all about Shakespeare and his work? Find out with this quiz!
Developing Your Professional Voice
Linda Bergman, author of “Academic Research and Writing”, outlines several guidelines that are useful to help writers develop their professional voice in writing. This quiz helps students hone in on some of those methods and provides ways that they can easily implement them into their essays.
What a Good Paper Must Possess
This quiz will serve as a tool to help students learn about the mechanics for writing a good paper.
Grammar Check 1
Practice your understanding of the English language and how to properly apply it with this quiz. Quotations, contractions, subject/verb agreement, possession, and participles are among the skills tested.