Edgar Allan Poe Essay -- Edgar Allan Poe Structure Structuralism

Edgar Allan PoeThough an innumerable amount of comments of any given text edition might be drawn from a variety of perspectives, a morphologicist abstract of two of Poes works help place their symbols within a theme related to myth and heroism. Peter Barry attempts to restrain structuralism succinctly by designateing it down as the belief that things cannot be mum in isolationthey have to be seen in the linguistic context of the large structures they are part of he goes on to add that meaning is ceaselessly an attribute of things, in the literal sense that meanings are ATTRIBUTED to the things by the adult male mind, not contained within them (39). One might attempt to further narrow this idea (ironically) by quoting the famous line, Everything is relative, which is to say, all reality is contingent upon the perceiver. The context in which that reality is being perceived becomes the point of interest, so that, in regard to literature, there is a constant movement a way from the interpretation of the individual literary work and a parallel drive towards judgment the larger, abstract structures which contain them (Barry, 40). The question becomes not what, but how. It is interesting, then, to further define the crux of this theory in search of what conclusion a new-fashioned structuralist reading of a pre-structuralist author, namely Edgar Allan Poe, might yield. Structuralism itself is defined as modern but through its own origins following the widely discussed applications of structural analysis to mythology by the anthropologist Claude Lvi-Strauss can be attributed to relatively novel intellectual movements, which then reflect back on the writings of Poe, mayhap evidencing inspiration for the theory in the firs... ...l and follows its progression panel by panel. plant CitedBaldick, Chris. Structuralism. OXFORD CONCISE DICTIONARY OF LITERARY TERMS. 2nd edition. New York Oxford University Press, 2001. 245-246.Barr y, Peter. Structuralism. BEGINNING theory AN INTRODUCTION TO LITERARY AND CULTURAL THEORY. 2nd edition. Manchester Manchester University Press, 2002. 39-60.Coogan, Peter M. The Secret theme of the Superhero The Origin and Evolution of the Superhero Genre in America. AMERICAN QUARTERLY. Vol 55, Iss. 4. College Park, December 2003. 801Poe, Edgar Allan. The Tell-Tale Heart. RETELLINGS A THEMATIC Literature Anthology. New York McGraw-Hill, 2004. 404-407 The Cask of Amontillado. Classroom handout (SUNY Potsdam, coin 2005, LITR 300, Dr. McNutt). 463-467.