Originating in Europe, Romanticism acted as a rebuttal to the ideological tenets of rationalism. Romanticism: Faith in the Unknownĭuring Poe’s lifetime, a new way of understanding and defining the world–dubbed Romanticism–had been growing in popularity and notoriety in the United States. This concept of the unknown in Poe’s storytelling originates partly in the philosophical and cultural fixtures of the early half of the 1800’s. The concept of “unknown,” of the unseen, the ambiguous, the stuff that can only be realized in the realm of the imagination, though common in literature, is especially pertinent to the effect of Poe’s work, especially his short stories of horror. Moreover, his strongest works would not be as enduring if not for his use of the “unknown” as a story element. Several notable works outside the literary field, including film adaptations and even pop music album (The Alan Parsons Project’s Tales of Mystery and Imagination) can further prove Poe’s influence. The likes of Charles Baudelaire, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Ray Bradbury, fellow authors, praise Poe as an inspiration. The events and images in his most famous works, including “The Raven,” “The Tell-Tale Heart,” and “The Cask of Amontillado,” are recognized and repeated in literature and pop-culture. Published in magazines and newspapers in his lifetime, Poe’s short stories and poetry have gone on to define the horror short story and the poem in the American literary context, and, over a century and a half after his death, his work is still read and quoted. Poe is a cornerstone of American literature, in spite of his short life (1809-1849). This basic element of the “unknown” plays a crucial role in the works of Edgar Allan Poe. The unknown–the things that cannot be easily explained–ignites primal, innate fears, pushing us to confront the intangible or flee from it and risk never truly understanding it. Regardless, the “unknown,” no matter its form, confronts and challenges us, wherever we might go.
What follows varies: curiosity, surprise, anger, or sadness.
When something–a person, an idea, a place, a situation–cannot be easily understood or explained, a feeling of anxiety grows. That anxiety originates in a fear of the “unknown,” with whatever danger being present, possibly, but somehow out of sight and even comprehension. A madman brandishing a weapon or a snarling beast is a clear, direct danger–distinct from this, and possibly more frightening, is the nagging anxiety of a pitch-black corridor that demands your presence.
ALAN PARSONS PROJECT HALLOWEEN THE RAVEN MOVIE
The variety of accepted phobias, movie monsters, and real-life tragedies can speak of this.
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