Blooms Literary Themes - THE GROTESQUE.pdf - ymerleksi - home

Edgar Allan Poe’s Short Stories63magazines, appeared side by side with other tales of horror,and in Hawthorne and Washington Irving Poe had prominentpredecessors.2. The same usage is found in German; for instance, in theopening passage of Lenz’ Waldbruder: “Grotesquely piled upmountains.”3. The New English Dictionary (Oxford, 1901) lists the earlierinstances of grotesque but fails to quote Scott and Poe and thechange of meaning they brought about.4. Arthur H. Quinn, Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography (NewYork, 1941), comes to the conclusion that Poe uses the word“arabesque” to denote a “powerful imagination,” whereas“grotesque” signifies a “burlesque or satiric trait.” But Poe’slanguage does not seem to confirm this.5. See H. H. Kiihnelt, Die Bedeutung E.A. Poes fur die englischeLiteratur (Innsbruck, 1949); Pierre Cambiaire, The Influence ofE. A. Poe in France (New York, 1927); Leon Lemonnier, E. Poeet les Conteurs Français (Paris, 1947).