Launching from Poe
This seminar explores Edgar A. Poe's legacy as a global icon of modernity. As Karen Grumberg states in a recent issue of Poe Studies (2020), “The scholarly interest in Poe as a participant in a global literary network is readily evident in the proliferation of recent studies such as Poe Abroad, 'Cosmopolitan Poe,' Poe's Pervasive Influence, Translated Poe, and 'Poe and his Global Advocates'.” Poe’s afterlife, in fact, extends far beyond literature. Participants are invited to take as a point of departure a story, poem or essay by Poe & “launch” from there to contemporary aspects of the mediascape, broadly construed. Taking into account the network of connecting areas of knowledge that trace foundational ideas back to various aspects of Poe’s writing, our seminar proposes an experiment in thinking about modern culture through some of Poe’s texts. We encourage proposals from non-specialists who would like to explore Poe’s contributions to and influence on their fields, from global literary studies to film and media studies, art, philosophy, cognitive psychology, AI, and beyond.
We welcome proposals addressing the following themes, among others:
Poe’s Foundational Metropolis: the sounds & sights of modern cityscapes
Poe’s Global Modernity: the transnational and translinguistic circulation of Poe from the Middle East to Asia to Latin America
A Global Philosophy of Composition: Poe’s influence on plot theory by short story writers (Borges, Cortázar), filmmakers (Roger Corman, Jean Epstein, D.W. Griffith, J.-L. Godard, Jan Švankmajer), composers (Ravel), or literary theorists (Russian formalists and their followers)
Induction, Analytic Detective Stories, and AI: From the inductive reasoning of Dupin (“Murders in the Rue Morgue”) to contemporary questions of artificial intelligence & algorithmic function in digital media
Poe’s Gothic Aesthetics: Photo-mechanical reproduction, photogénie, avant-gardism, & transformative machines (e.g., the x-ray machine)
Formulas and Topoi Adapted from Poe: Poe’s horror and detective fictions and contemporary procedural films, television series, and games
Poe’s Technological Fantasies: Contemporary technologically-inflected forms of the uncanny
Poe’s Thinking Machines: Maelzel’s Chess-player and contemporary models of interpretation, e.g., neuroscientific theories of embodied cognition
Translation/mistranslation, Anthologies, Canonization: from Poe's early translators (in particular Baudelaire) to contemporary theories of global canonicity
The Raven and its Afterlives: Translations and transmedial adaptations of the poem
1002 Urban Tales: from Poe's orientalized satire of modern-day America in “The 1002nd Tale of Scheherazade” to contemporary narratives of enchanted capitalism (e.g., serialized literature, modern philanthropy, rags to riches stories)
This seminar explores Edgar A. Poe's legacy as a global icon of modernity. As Karen Grumberg states in a recent issue of Poe Studies (2020), “The scholarly interest in Poe as a participant in a global literary network is readily evident in the proliferation of recent studies such as Poe Abroad, 'Cosmopolitan Poe,' Poe's Pervasive Influence, Translated Poe, and 'Poe and his Global Advocates'.” Poe’s afterlife, in fact, extends far beyond literature. Participants are invited to take as a point of departure a story, poem or essay by Poe & “launch” from there to contemporary aspects of the mediascape, broadly construed. Taking into account the network of connecting areas of knowledge that trace foundational ideas back to various aspects of Poe’s writing, our seminar proposes an experiment in thinking about modern culture through some of Poe’s texts. We encourage proposals from non-specialists who would like to explore Poe’s contributions to and influence on their fields, from global literary studies to film and media studies, art, philosophy, cognitive psychology, AI, and beyond.
We welcome proposals addressing the following themes, among others:
Poe’s Foundational Metropolis: the sounds & sights of modern cityscapes
Poe’s Global Modernity: the transnational and translinguistic circulation of Poe from the Middle East to Asia to Latin America
A Global Philosophy of Composition: Poe’s influence on plot theory by short story writers (Borges, Cortázar), filmmakers (Roger Corman, Jean Epstein, D.W. Griffith, J.-L. Godard, Jan Švankmajer), composers (Ravel), or literary theorists (Russian formalists and their followers)
Induction, Analytic Detective Stories, and AI: From the inductive reasoning of Dupin (“Murders in the Rue Morgue”) to contemporary questions of artificial intelligence & algorithmic function in digital media
Poe’s Gothic Aesthetics: Photo-mechanical reproduction, photogénie, avant-gardism, & transformative machines (e.g., the x-ray machine)
Formulas and Topoi Adapted from Poe: Poe’s horror and detective fictions and contemporary procedural films, television series, and games
Poe’s Technological Fantasies: Contemporary technologically-inflected forms of the uncanny
Poe’s Thinking Machines: Maelzel’s Chess-player and contemporary models of interpretation, e.g., neuroscientific theories of embodied cognition
Translation/mistranslation, Anthologies, Canonization: from Poe's early translators (in particular Baudelaire) to contemporary theories of global canonicity
The Raven and its Afterlives: Translations and transmedial adaptations of the poem
1002 Urban Tales: from Poe's orientalized satire of modern-day America in “The 1002nd Tale of Scheherazade” to contemporary narratives of enchanted capitalism (e.g., serialized literature, modern philanthropy, rags to riches stories)