The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, Edgar Allan Poe | William E. Lenz (essay date 1991)
William E. Lenz (essay date 1991)
SOURCE: “Poe's Arthur Gordon Pym and the Narrative Techniques of Antarctic Gothic,” in CEA Critic, Vol. 53, No. 3, Spring/Summer, 1991, pp. 30-38.
[In the following essay, Lenz suggests that it was Poe, as is particularly evident in his Pym, who discovered the Antarctic as a locale suitable for gothic tales leading to “the deepest regions of our primitive imagination.”]
Edgar Allan Poe is best known for his depictions of extreme states of consciousness. It is easy to forget that he was a successful exploiter of contemporary cultural attitudes and popular literary conventions. Whether we think of the nineteenth-century interest in phrenology, occultism, orientalism, hoaxes, and mesmerism, or the nineteenth-century popularity of lyric poetry and Gothic fiction, Poe is always among the first to capitalize on topical issues and literary trends.
Early in his career, Poe was drawn...
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