UNIVERSITY OF CONSTANTINE THE PHILOSOPHER
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH AND AMERICAN STUDIES
Symbols in The Raven
PhD. Anton PokrivÃÂák
Svetlana Chudá
2nd year, Aj - Es
I think it is adequate to start my essay with superlatives: Poe's The Raven belongs to the most well-known and popular poem of world literature. I know this phrase should sounds as cliché but after my reading I was quite fascinated. I had indescribable feelings as if something strange touched part of my soul. I realized The Raven is a unique work not only for complicated strophic and verse structure but also for uncertain deeper meaning of the whole poem. It is mysterious, romantic ballade with a subtle meaning hidden behind strong symbolism. A lot of books, articles and comments were written about symbols in The Raven. Many people believed these symbols are keys to declassify inner deep meaning of the poem. I am delighted at this fact and especially at the poem itself that is why I decided to write about the Edgar Alan Poe and symbols in his The Raven.
Facsimile of Edgar Allan Poe's original manuscript...
Illustration by Édouard Manet for a French transl...
English: Byam Shaw's illustration for Poe's The Mu..."American renaissance" is term used for a unique period of American literature around half of 19th century. Historically it was a time of many problems which led to an American Civil war. In literature this period started the publishing of Emerson's work Nature (1836) regarded as the "real declaration of American literary independence" (R. Rulad, Bradbury M., 1992:106). The year 1861 brings it to an (American Civil war).
F.O. Mathiessen titled his study about the main representatives of this period and culture "American renaissance" and the name of it became in common use. In fact it was a birth, beginning of something totally new. It was the time when American poetry, essay, travelogue, novel and including Poe's work of previous twenty years also...