Date of Award

Winter 1996

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Humanities

Committee Director

Douglas G. Greene

Committee Member

Konrad Winters

Committee Member

Jeffrey Richards

Abstract

Edgar Allan Poe is one of the best known Americans in the world, as a great poet, literary critic and essayist, and innovator of the analytic detective story. Yet he basically remains his own best mystery. Major cities have monuments to him. This creative work's object is to show that Norfolk, Virginia, was central in his life and art. In fact, the theatre company with which his actress mother, Eliza Arnold Poe (and her friends, the Sullys), was longest affiliated, was headquartered there. Edgar's sister Rosalie was born in a house on Brewer Street. Times and the circumstances of Poe in Norfolk become commanding. The work is presented linearly, centered about this writer's hereditarily and newly found information about his last visit a few weeks before his death. Associated dynamic and theatrical scenes of Poe's parents are introduced to give clues, and mysteries such as the identity of 'Annabel Lee' are illuminated through the previously ignored past topography of Norfolk.

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In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

DOI

10.25777/sgdj-3368

ISBN

9780591262322

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