Description
Book SynopsisEdgar Allan Poe notoriously identified “the death . . . of a beautiful woman” as “the most poetical topic in the world.” Despite that cringeworthy claim, Poe drew creative inspiration from female authors, and women figure prominently among the artists and critics fascinated by the writer’s creative legacy. A book-length work about the various ways in which women—Poe’s female contemporaries, scholars, writers and artists, as well as women characters in Poe adaptations—have influenced perceptions of Poe is long overdue. Covering a time frame that extends from the mid-nineteenth century to the twenty-first, this collection features essays about all of these subjects. One goal of this book is recognizing how women have helped establish Poe’s reputation in the U.S. and abroad. The other is drawing attention to ways that constructions of womanhood accepted by Poe are revised in popular culture, a sphere where artists—in film, fiction, and comics—build on the subversive potential of Poe’s work while exposing its ideological limitations. Poe and Women will appeal not only to Poe specialists but also to anyone interested in his ongoing relevance to gender discussions inside and outside the academy.
Table of ContentsIntroduction
Amy Branam Armiento and Travis Montgomery
Part I: Recognition
- “The Vast Pantheon of Speculation”: Edgar Allan Poe and His Women Biographers Sandra Tomc
- Spiritual Dialogues: Lydia Maria Child, Edgar Allan Poe, and the Politics of Unity
Adam Bradford
- Fifty Years of Women’s Scholarship on Poe
Amy Branam Armiento
- Transnational Poe: Women Scholars Abroad
Clara Petino
Part II: Revision
- “Can You See Me?”: Poe’s Female Characters and the Struggle for Self-Definition on Film
Alexandra Reuber
- “And She Grew Strangely”: Poe, Women, and Comics
John Edward Martin
- “Sort of E. A. Poeish”: Edgar Allan Poe and Female Pulp Writers
Kevin Knott
- Traces of Poe’s House of Usher in the Work of Contemporary Women Horror Writers
Melanie R. Anderson
Afterword: Maureen Cobb Mabbott and The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe
Travis Montgomery
