Edgar Allan Poe and the Periodical Marketplace Spring 2009, VCU Instructor Course Dr. Les Harrison ENGL 611.902 324e Hibbs R, 7:00 – 9:40 [email protected] 3 credits 804-827-8334 (o) Office Hours 804-269-1023 (c) R, 12:00 – 2:00 This class will concentrate on Edgar Allan Poe as a periodical author in the context of the nineteenth-century literary marketplace. Readings will focus on those Poe tales and Poems which initially debuted in the periodical press. Student presentations will attempt to fully situate Poe within his nineteenth-century periodical context through analysis of the stories, advertisements, illustrations, and implied editorial and publication policies of the specific volumes in which his tales and poems first appeared. Throughout the course, special attention will be paid to the ways in which Poe and his nineteenth-century contemporaries wrote to the demands of a competitive, turbulent, and transforming market for periodical authors. Required Texts Cline, Patricia Cohen, Timothy J. Gilfoyle, Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz, and the American Antiquarian Society. The Flash Press: Sporting Male Weeklies in 1840s New York. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2008. Lehuu. Isabelle. Carnival on the Page: Popular Print Media in AnteBellum America. Chapel Hill, N.C.: U of North Carolina P, 2000. Poe, Edgar Allan. Poe: Poetry, Tales, and Selected Essays. Library of America College Edition. New York: Library of America, 1996. Optional Texts Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Selected Tales and Sketches. Ed. Michael J. Colacurcio. New York: Penguin, 1987. McGill, Meredith L. American Literature and the Culture of Reprinting, 1834—1853. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 2003. Please use the editions specified on the syllabus – especially for the Poe volume. My initial book order included texts by Melville and Fern as well. These texts will not be used in the course. Assignments Book Review: 25% Periodical Presentation: 20% Seminar Paper: 55% Abstract: 10% Conference Paper: 30% Final Paper: 60% Book Review A 5-7 page critical book review of Isabelle Lehuu’s Carnival on the Page: The Popular Print Media in AnteBellum America. Periodical Presentation You will be responsible for finding and posting to Blackboard an entire issue of one of the periodicals in which an assigned Poe tale initially appeared. Most of the periodicals are available on one of the digital archives listed in Blackboard – although there are one or two for which you may have to pull microform and digitize an issue at the library (I can show you how). On the day of your presentation, you will open class with a discussion of the relevant issue of the periodical you have selected and the ways in which to contents of the journal help to increase our understanding of the Poe text which it contains. Seminar Paper A the conclusion of the course you will write a 20-page seminar paper of publication or near- publication quality. As a part of the writing process, you will present a conference-length version of this paper (8-10 pages, 20 minutes) to your classmates during one of the final two class meetings. Class Participation Intelligent and consistent class participation is expected. Poor class participation, including missed classes, will be reflected in your final grade. Course Schedule 1/15 Introduction to the Course: Poe and Antebellum Periodicals Digitizing periodicals – A Short Introduction Assign Groups Dessert Schedule 1/22 Presentation: Harrison; Dessert: Jessica Evans **The Philadelphia Saturday Courier “Metzengerstein” (14 January 1832), LOA 134 “The Duke de L'Omlette” (3 March 1832), LOA 143 “A Tale of Jerusalem” (9 June 1832), LOA 147 “A Decided Loss” [Loss of Breath] (10 November 1832), LOA 151 “The Bargain Lost, [Bon-Bon] (1 December 1832), LOA 164 “Raising the Wind” [Diddling Considered as . ] (14 October 1843), LOA 607 “Sonnet – Silence” (4 January 1840), LOA 77 The Philadelphia Saturday Chronicle “The Devil in the Belfry. An Extravaganza “(18 May 1839), LOA 298 The Saturday Visitor (Baltimore) “Enigma” [On Shakespeare] (2 February 1833), LOA 71 “Serenade” (20 April 1833), LOA 71 “MS. Found in a Bottle” (19 October 1833), LOA 189 “The Coliseum” (26 October 1833), LOA 72 Poe’s Writings on Magazines and Periodical Authorship “Prospectus of The Penn Magazine” (Saturday Evening Post, June 1840), BB “Prospectus of The Stylus” (Saturdy Museum, 4 March 1843), BB “Secrets of the Magazine Prison-House” (Broadway Journal, 15 Feb. 1845), BB “Anastatic Printing” (Broadway Journal, 12 April 1845), BB “Pay of American Authors” (New York Evening Mirror, 24-31 Jan. 1845), BB Whalen, Terrence. “Edgar Allan Poe and the Horrid Laws of Political Economy.” American Quarterly 44.3 (1992): 381–417. BB Hayes, Kevin. from Poe and the Printed Word. BB 1/29 Presentation: Lee Carleton **The Southern Literary Messenger (Richmond, VA) “Berenice—A Tale” (March 1835), LOA 225 “Morella” (April 1835), LOA 234 “Lion-izing. A Tale [Lionizing]” (May 1835), LOA 212 “Hans Pfaall--A Tale [The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall]” (June 1835), LOA 951 “King Pest the First. A Tale containing an Allegory” (September 1835), LOA 240 “Shadow—A Parable” (September 1835), LOA 218 “Epimanes [The Homocameleopard--Four Beasts in One]” (March 1836), LOA 181 “Letter to B----- ” (July 1836), BB “The City of Sin” [The City in the Sea] (August 1836), LOA 67 “Bridal Ballad” (January 1837), LOA 74 “Sonnet—To Zante” (January 1837), LOA 75 “The Literary Life of Thingum Bob, Esq” (December 1844), LOA 766 Edgar Allan Poe to Thomas Willis White, 30 April 1835, BB McGill, Meredith L. “The Matter of the Text,” from American Literature and the Culture of Reprinting, 1834—1853. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 2003. 1—44. BB 2/5 The Southern Literary Messenger (Richmond, VA) “Arthur Gordon Pym - No I [ch. 1 and part of ch. 2]” (January 1837), LOA 1003—1182 “Arthur Gordon Pym - No II [remainder of ch. 2, ch. 3, and part of ch. 4]” (February 1837) Hayes, kevin J. “The Novel,” from Poe and the Printed Word. Cambridge, Uk: Cambridge UP, 2000. 58—74. BB 2/12 F Book Review Due E Lehuu, Isabelle. Carnival on the Page: The Popular Print Media in Antebellum America. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 2000. Presentation: John Piersol (no dessert) **American Museum of Science, Literature and the Arts (Baltimore) “Ligeia” (September 1838), LOA 262 “The Psyche Zenobia” [How to Write a Blackwood Article] (November 1838), LOA 278 “The Haunted Palace” (April 1839), LOA 76 The Baltimore Book, a Christmas and New Year's Present (Baltimore) “Siope—A Fable” [Silence—A Fable]” (1838), LOA 221 The Gift, a Christmas and New Year's Present (Philadelphia) “William Wilson. A Tale” (1839), LOA 337 “Eleonora” (1841), LOA 468 “The Pit and the Pendulum” (1842), LOA 491 “The Purloined Letter” (1844), LOA 680 2/19 Presentation: Jessica Evans; Dessert: John Piersol **Burton's Gentleman's Magazine (Philadelphia) “The Man that was Used Up” (August 1839), LOA 307 “The Fall of the House of Usher, The” (September 1839), LOA 317 “The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion” (December 1839), LOA 358 “The Journal of Julius Rodman” (Jan. – June, 1840), LOA 1183—1255 “Peter Pendulum, The Business Man” [The Business Man]” (February 1840), LOA 373 “The Man of the Crowd” (December 1840), LOA 388 McGill, Meredith L. “Unauthorized Poe,” from American Literature and the Culture of Reprinting, 1834—1853. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 2003. 141—186. BB 2/26 Presentation: Brooke Bernard **Graham's Lady's and Gentleman's Magazine (Philadelphia) “Murders in the Rue Morgue,” (April 1841), LOA 397 “A Descent into the Maelström” (May 1841), LOA 432 “The Island of the Fay, The” (June 1841), LOA 933 “Colloquy of Monos and Una, The” (August 1841), LOA 449 “Never Bet Your Head, a Moral Tale [Never Bet the Devil . .]” (September 1841), LOA 458 “Life in Death [The Oval Portrait]” (April 1842), LOA 481 “Mask of the Red Death, The. A Fantasy.” (May 1842), LOA 485 “The Conqueror Worm” (January 1843), LOA 77 “Dream-Land” (June 1844), LOA 79 “Imp of the Perverse, The” (June 1845), LOA 826 “System of Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether, The” (November 1845), LOA 699 “Stanzas” [To F.S.O.] (December 1845), LOA 34 Whalen, Terrence. “Culture of Surfaces,” from Edgar Allan Poe and the Masses: The Political Economy of Literature in Antebellum America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1999. 225—248. BB 3/5 Presentation: John Coffey The Saturday Evening Post (Philadelphia) “Sonnet” [“Sonnet -- To Science”] (11 September 1830), LOA 38 “A Succession of Sundays” [Three Sundays in a Week] (27 November 1841), LOA 474 “The Black Cat” (19 August 1843), LOA 597 The Dollar Newspaper (Philadelphia) “The Gold-Bug” (21 & 28 June 1843), LOA 560 “The Spectacles” (27 March 1844), LOA 618 “The Premature Burial” (31 July 1844), LOA 666 **The Pioneer (Boston) “The Tell-Tale Heart” (January 1843), LOA 555 Hawthorne, “The Hall of Fantasy” (February 1843), STS 246 Hawthorne, “The Birth-mark” (March 1843), STS 259 McGill, Meredith L. “Poe, Literary Nationalism, and Authorial Identity,” from American Literature and the Culture of Reprinting, 1834—1853. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 2003. 187—217. BB Whalen, Terrence. “The Code for Gold.” BB 3/12 – Spring Break – 3/19 Presentation: Alana Davis **Godey’s Lady’s Book (Philadelphia) “ The Visionary” [The Assignation] (January 1834), LOA 200 “A Tale of the Ragged Mountains” (April 1844), LOA 655 “The Oblong Box, The” (September 1844), LOA 643 “Thou Art the Man” (November 1844), LOA 728 “The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade” (February 1845), LOA 787 “The Cask of Amontillado” (November 1846), LOA 848 “Mellonta Tauta” (February 1849), LOA 871 Arthur’s Ladies’ Magazine (Philadelphia) “The Sphinx” (January 1846), LOA 843 The Ladies’ Companion (New York City) “The Landscape Garden” [The Domain of Arnheim] (October 1842), LOA 855 “The Mystery of Marie Roget, Part I (November 1842), LOA 506—554 “The Mystery of Marie Roget, Part II (December 1842) “The Mystery of Marie Roget, Part III (February 1843) Saltz , Laura.