Abstract

Edgar Allan Poe made tremendous contribution to horror fiction. Poe’s inheritance of gothic fiction and American literature tradition combined with his living experience forms the background of his horror fictions. He inherited the tradition of the gothic fictions and made innovations on it, so as to penetrate to Sub consciousness. Poe’s horror fictions became the origin of Southern fictions, to a certain degree. In his works, he revealed people’s horror towards super nature, nothingness, death, evil and disintegration of personality. He tried to demonstrate that horror originates from our soul. By means of symbol, suspense, first person narrator, exaggeration of atmosphere and anti-closure, Poe tried his best to construct an intact uniform, mysterious and shaking effect. Poe’s fictions feed readers aesthetic enjoyment. In the portrait of evil and horror, he achieves the sublimation and purification of man’s inner world.

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