Guest Lectures on Edgar Allan Poe's Short Stories by Dr.Jay Mehta at English Department, MKBU, 18-20 October, 2020.He is lecturer at R. C. Technical collage at Ahmedabad.
Edgar Allan Poe was one of the most important and influential American writers of the 19th century. Much of Poe's work was inspired by the events that happened around him. Most famously, Poe completely transformed the genre of the horror story with his masterful tales of psychological depth and insight not envisioned in the genre before his time and scarcely seen in it since.
Edgar Allan Poe is credited with initiating the modern detective story, developing the Gothic horror story, and being a significant early forerunner of the science fiction form. Poe's literary criticism, which put great stress upon correctness of language, meter, and structure and the importance of achieving a unity of mood or effect, shaped literary theory. (wiki)
Dr. Jay Sir Mehta throw light on such basic qualities of Poe's work, such s.....
💫Detective fiction(The Purloined Letter)
💫 Mysterious and macabre type of short stories.
💫Theme of Mental congestion
- Extreme perversity,
- Bizarre and brooding atmosphere,
- Revenge
- elements of horror and terror
Here we go with the stories of poe taught by Jay sir,
1) The Tell Tale Heart
2) The Black Cat
3) The Fall of the House of Usher
4) The Cask of Amontillado
5) The Purloined Letter
6) The Gold Bug
Here we find that the structure of each and every story determines the very sheer connection of accident to with event. It can be said that tragedy never happens without reason or incident, the reason and incident leads situation towards tragedy, But here we see the situation is presented in the very formative manner which gives the clear idea of genre.
"Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their reality."
- Poe
The most essential part of Poe's short stories is when we grab it gradually and start elaborating with many aspects from basic human natural tendencies to very sheer phycological dilemmas of one. It is also seen that the narrative style of the story is looks bit zigzag kind of structure, where various commands of human mind start trickling at one time sometimes it is static one, sometimes it is absurd , overpowering and sometimes it is terrifying itself.
- Psychological Aspect
Jay sir Mehta was well introduced the sheer temperaments of psychological decease like Hallucination , Catalepsy , Neurosis , Psychosis etc. He had very great commands on connecting the dots with these psychological terms with Poe's stories. which is related our life experience also it reflects our psychological state of our mind.
- Narrator loves the pets
- He becomes mad for it too.
The way short stories called 'the black cat', 'the tell tale heart' and 'the Cask of Amontillado' we find the very similar kind of endings. While having different type of narrators, situations, crimes, nature aspects and all. In former, the narrator is known and in another one the narrator is unknown. At the end of each story our former the narrator realizes his guil his crime and fear too but then also, rather accepting the thngs her trying to hide everything with misdeed, which he had committed at once. In latter, the narrator doesn't realize his own guilt, while taking pride of his own falsifying deeds and rectifying it by his own percieved misconceptions, preserved in mind and becoming more confident to keep on doing so.
" No mortal can keep a secret in his , lips are silent, he characters with his fingertips, Betrayal oozes out of him from every pore "
- Dr. Sigmund Freud
‘Man Fear to death as children fears darkness’
In ' The fall of the house ( usher ) ' usher house melancholy view. Roderick boyhood companion of narrator and sister mate tragic death by sickness of house. It evokes feeling of terror , horror and thriller
So, with the Poe’s horror, terror, fear, bloodshed, burying lie, macabre and various psychological abnormalities, we feel pleasure of poetry. Poe is master of ‘Tales of mystery and imagination’. Two types of short story he writes
1.Tales of horror and terror
. 2Tales of ratiocination.
Poe’s use of word shows he is accurate in using vocabulary and reading of original stories through Sir’s mouth we really feel Poe’s sharpness against sense.
- Element of Fear
So, Element of Fear is in a center of all Poe's stories. Psychological analysis with Freud’s theories like over consciousness, each and every character made of the very basic human tendencies of hiding the truth but at the end or at middle of the story after committing sin every character feels the quality as sinner or criminal and feels fear.
- Point of Gothic
Point of Gothic literature and element of it in Poe’s writing is also well described by Sir. This universal significance in Stories of Poe shows the permanence value because before Freud or development of psychology Poe wrote all this thing metaphorically in his writing.
So his lecture were combination of elements of Horror and Terror ,Gujrati / Hindi Guzzle and poems , Movies and Psychological terms. So it were very fruitful sessions for us. He also used the original quotes when he starts his lectures. Here I wants to put one of quote which he wrote on the board when he start his lecture.
"Literatures is like exe frozen with in you ".
After learning Poe’s six stories from Sir, we can characterize Poe as..
-Writer of Diction language
-Autobiographical elements in his writing
- Great creator of suspense in writing
- Inner conflict in characterization
- Balance in head and heart
- He brings the poetic in short stories
- Death and darkness of human mind is major theme
- Tone of melancholy and sadness
- Singularity of effect
-.A skillful artist
- Reference of Gujrati- Hindi poems and Guzzles
So his teaching was combination of Horror and Terror ,Gujrati / Hindi Guzzle and poems , Movies and Psychological terms. So it were very fruitful sessions for us. He also used the original quotes when he starts his lectures. He told everyone who are interested into writing Poems and Guzzle to keep writing and also he told to listen the tone of recitation of Guzzle and Poems. Because tone is very important in recitation of any poems and guzzles. He has also told to read Guzzle of Gulzar, Galib, Rahish Maniyara, Mukesh Joshi, D
His teaching style is unique from others because he gave us pre thinking activity so from it our mind becomes ready for study and understand the basic concept. Also he connect poe's stories with movies like Bruce almighta Liar Liar , Gazi Attack, So this way he connect the features of poe 's stories with movies. i like to thank dr. DILIP BARAD SIR for organizing such sessions to expand our thinking area so broad.
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