Arthur Gordon Pym and the Novel Narrative of Edgar Allan Poe Author(s): Lisa Gitelman Source: Nineteenth-Century Literature, Vol. 47, No. 3 (Dec., 1992), pp. 349-361 Published by: University of California Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2933711 Accessed: 08-03-2017 22:58 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact
[email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms University of California Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Nineteenth-Century Literature This content downloaded from 128.227.181.70 on Wed, 08 Mar 2017 22:58:57 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Arthur Gordon Pym and the Novel Narrative of Edgar Allan Poe LISA GITELMAN &DGAR Allan Poe's The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym has been called a "Ber- muda Triangle" for literary critics.' The critical literature on Pym may be divided, like two corners of this triangle, into what biblical scholars have long labeled source-criticism and form-criticism: source-critics have identified Poe's depen- dence upon Jeremiah Reynolds, Benjamin Morrell, and other authors, while form-critics have assessed the novel's unity and debated questions of genre.2 A third project con- suming the Poe industry forms the triangle's most oblique angle: what is the thematic meaning of Pym, and more, what is its literary value? Reserving the question of value for the moment, it is clear that the matters of source and form are not unrelated.