History, narrative, and authority: Poe's "Metzengerstein.' (Edgar Allan Poe's novel "Metzengerstein")
| Publisher | West Chester University |
| Publication | College Literature |
| Subject | Education |
| Format | Magazine/Journal |
| ISSN | 0093-3139 |
| Issues per Year | 3 |
| Volume | v24 |
| Issue | n2 |
| Published | 1997-06-01 |
| Role | Type | Name |
| Author | n/a | Jerome DeNuccio |
| Person | Criticism and interpretation | Edgar Allan Poe |
It is perhaps fitting that in "Metzengerstein," his first published tale,(1) Poe explores the authority a writer wields over his narrative. What makes the tale interesting, however, is the strategy Poe employs: he uses a writing character's loss of authority to affirm his own. Poe's strategy hinges on the dual metempsychosis that occurs in the tale. On the surface, of course, the tale strongly implies that the soul of Count Berlifitzing has transmigrated to a horse, thereby exacting revenge on his hereditary enemy Baron Metzengerstein. But a second, less apparent, metempsychosis takes...
[This journal article is 4841 words long]
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