Poe’s Dark Sublime and the Supernatural

Abstract

ABSTRACTPoe's sublime distinguishes itself from the Romantic Sublime by its link to a literal, rather than a metaphoric or perceptual, supernatural world. Such a construction—in which the perceiving subject actually comes into contact with the Sublime object—counters the “aesthetics of optimism” generally associated with the Sublime mode. This counter-sublime takes the perceiving subject into an experience of dissolution generally associated with dread of the underworld. In other instances, Poe seems to be parodying Sublimity. His purpose seems to subvert the Kantian dynamic Sublime, an inversion which critics have noted in Poe's fiction but not his poetry. Despite its removal from the world of actual phenomena, Poe's Sublime of the true supernatural is some of his most evocative writing.