The Philosophy of Composition (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Edgar Allan Poe
- First Published: 1846
- Type of Work: Essay
- Genres: Nonfiction, Essays
- Subjects: United States or Americans, Nineteenth century, Literature, Poetry or poets, Writing, Beauty, Death or dying
From the beginning of his career as a poet, short-story writer, and critic and reviewer, Poe was developing a body of critical doctrine about the nature of literature. Basically, the doctrine assumes that, whereas the lowest forms of literary art are realistic works and works created to illustrate a didactic moral lesson, the highest form of literary art is the aesthetic creation of beauty. Bits and pieces of this theory can be found developing from Poe's earliest reviews and prefaces. The theory comes together in a unified fashion in Poe's most extended and famous theoretical...
[The entire page is 965 words long]
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