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Edgar Allan Poe and the masses : the political economy of literature in antebellum America / Terence Whalen.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Whalen, Terence, 1959-
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Poe, Edgar Allan, 1809-1849--Contemporary America.
- Poe, Edgar Allan.
- Poe, Edgar Allan, 1809-1849.
- Economics and literature--United States--History--19th century.
- Economics and literature.
- Mass media.
- History.
- Capitalism and literature.
- Authorship--Economic aspects.
- Authorship.
- United States.
- Authorship--Economic aspects--United States--History--19th century.
- Capitalism and literature--United States--History--19th century.
- Politics and literature--United States--History--19th century.
- Politics and literature.
- Literature publishing--United States--History--19th century.
- Literature publishing.
- Authors and readers--United States--History--19th century.
- Authors and readers.
- Popular literature--United States--History and criticism.
- Popular literature.
- Mass media--United States--History--19th century.
- Physical Description:
- x, 328 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
- Place of Publication:
- Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, [1999]
- Summary:
- Edgar Allan Poe has long been viewed as an artist who was hopelessly out of step with his time. But as Terence Whalen shows, America's most celebrated romantic outcast was in many ways the nation's most representative commercial writer. Whalen explores the antebellum literary environment in which Poe worked, an environment marked by economic conflict, political strife, and widespread foreboding over the rise of a mass audience. The book shows that the publishing industry, far from being a passive backdrop to writing, threatened to dominate all aspects of literary creation. Faced with financial hardship, Poe desperately sought to escape what he called "the magazine prison-house" and "the horrid laws of political economy." By placing Poe firmly in economic context, Whalen unfolds a new account of the relationship between literature and capitalism in an age of momentous social change.
- The book combines pathbreaking historical research with innovative literary theory. It includes the first fully-documented account of Poe's response to American slavery and the first expose of his plot to falsify circulation figures. Whalen also provides a new explanation of Poe's ambivalence toward nationalism and exploration, a detailed inquiry into the conflict between cryptography and common knowledge, and a general theory of Poe's experiments with new literary forms such as the detective story. Finally, Whalen shows how these experiments are directly linked to the dawn of the information age. This book redefines Poe's place in American literature and casts new light on the emergence of a national culture before the Civil War.
- Contents:
- Pt. 1 Capitalism and Literature 1
- Ch. 1 Introduction: Minor Writing and the Capital Reader 3
- Ch. 2 The Horrid Laws of Political Economy 21
- Ch. 3 Fables of Circulation: Poe's influence on the Messenger 58
- Ch. 4 Poe and the Masses 76
- Pt. 2 Race and Region 109
- Ch. 5 Average Racism: Poe, Slavery, and the Wages of Literary Nationalism 111
- Ch. 6 Subtle Barbarians: The Southern Voyage of Edgar Allan Poe 147
- Pt. 3 Mass Culture 193
- Ch. 7 The Code for Gold: Poe and Cryptography 195
- Ch. 8 Culture of Surfaces 225
- Ch. 9 The Investigating Angel: Poe, Babbage, and "The Power of Words" 249.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references (pages [275]-322) and index.
- Local Notes:
- Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Class of 1924 Book Fund.
- ISBN:
- 0691001995
- OCLC:
- 39800743
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