Narrative Suspense in Edgar Allan Poe and Alfred Hitchcock

Elaine Indrusiak

doi:10.30687/el/2420-823x/2018/05/003

Abstract

This article explores the construction of narrative suspense in Edgar Allan Poe’s and Alfred Hitchcock’s works. Central to their creations is a dual narrative structure that builds tension by articulating two stories in one. Narratological analyses of Poe’s tales and of Hitchcock’s thrillers indicate that their suspense does not stem from gothic topoi, but from plots skilfully wrought to manipulate the readers/viewers’ attention. The first part of the article introduces the concept of narrative suspense. Next, structural principles defended by Poe and Hitchcock are presented. The last two parts discuss narrative techniques in the works by both authors. Given the authors’ influence within their respective media, the analysis has implications for studies of the short story and of the suspense thriller as a narrative genre.

Highlights

Double Articulation: the Core of the Short Story and of Narrative SuspenseAs with most mental states, suspense is difficult to define, being usually associated to uncertainty, expectation, apprehension and anxiety
This article explores the construction of narrative suspense in Edgar Allan Poe’s and Alfred Hitchcock’s works
The third category brings some of Poe’s most popular works; it is precisely the one that has left its marks on Hitchcock’s cinema, but in most Western short story writers. It is in this group that we find the tales in which Poe most proficiently exercised the unity of effect defended in his own critical texts and the dual narrative structure identified by Piglia

Summary

Double Articulation: the Core of the Short Story and of Narrative Suspense

As with most mental states, suspense is difficult to define, being usually associated to uncertainty, expectation, apprehension and anxiety. Though only an investigative tour de force would allow us to determine the applicability of Piglia’s theses to the whole genre of literary short stories, his exemplification renders the theses plausible and draws attention to a narrative structure recurrently implemented by the writers he analyses. When it comes to Poe’s case, do Piglia’s theses shed. As I intend to demonstrate in what follows, Hitchcock is one of such cases

Poe and Hitchcock

Narrative Suspense in Poe’s Gothic Stories

Hitchcock’s Classic and Contemporary Narrative Suspense

Conclusions