Texts in the City: Great Short Works

In this Texts in the City event, writer and lecturer Emmett Stinson joins Jenny Niven to discuss the many ways of reading and interpreting Edgar Allan Poe’s open-ended stories in Great Short Works.

Stinson opens by explaining why the influential figure of horror and crime fiction appeals to him as a fan. Other topics covered in the discussion include: prime examples of Poe’s use of language and consciousness, Poe’s entwinement of evil and repetition, themes of entrapment and burial, the body and illness and Poe’s pre-Freudian analytical style of dramatic monologue.

Broadening their focus, Stinson and Niven then discuss Poe’s dual role as gothic horror writer and satirist and his conception of the relationship between art and life.