Abstract
The influence of Edgar Allan Poe on North American culture and literature is still a subject of debate in contemporary literary theory. However, Poe’s creative legacy regarding the writings of Miriam Allen Deford remains neglected by the literary critics. Deford’s fiction explored a set of literary genres, such as biography, science fiction, crime and detective short stories. Taking these premises as a point of departure, this article aims to identify similarities between “A Death in the Family” and some of Poe’s works. Drawing on studies by J. T. Irwin, James M. Hutchisson and others, the objective of this paper is to analyze passages from Deford’s tale in comparison with the poetry and fictional prose of Poe. The analysis suggests that Deford’s horror short story “A Death in the Family,” published in 1961, was mostly inspired by Poe’s gothic tales, detective stories, and poems.
Highlights
Edgar Allan Poe’s intellectual heritage has been well documented, as his successors inherited specific lines in prose fiction thereby developing stories of post-modern subjectivity
The analysis suggests that Deford’s horror short story “A Death in the Family,” published in 1961, was mostly inspired by Poe’s gothic tales, detective stories, and poems
Pollin noted that Poe’s “seductive influence” requires “a variety of approaches.”[1]. Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Joaquim Ruyra, Jorge Luis Borges, Joseph Conrad and Julio Cortazar were authors influenced by Poe
Summary
Edgar Allan Poe’s intellectual heritage has been well documented, as his successors inherited specific lines in prose fiction thereby developing stories of post-modern subjectivity. The influence of Poe on Miriam Allen Deford’s work is present in her detective stories such as “A Death in the Family,” whose protagonist recalls some of the obsessive and reclusive narrators of Poe’s stories. This paper is concerned with the study of literary relationships between “A Death in the Family,” a story of the 20th-century American writer Miriam Allen Deford and some of Poe’s major works. When the reader prefigures these scenarios and bizarre situations, experiencing a specific impression in response to an effective plot, the author tries to make possible some impossibilities and vice-versa: Poe’s creative imagination ranged from the detective story that was meant to entertain by appealing to the intellect to “The Premature Burial” that was designed to terrify by appealing to the emotions The latter achieved its effect by describing a fear that was deeply rooted in Western culture during the nineteenth century.[7]. Sloane went downstairs to be with his family, turned on all the jets of the old gas chandelier, kissed Gussie on the lips “for the first time” and struck a kitchen match on the sole of his shoe
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