Category: edgar allan poe

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Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat” and Frederick Douglass

We started my “Monsters, Race, and Comics” course this semester by reading various texts, including Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat” and “Hop-Frog or The Eight Chained Ourang-Outangs.” These stories work as explorations of national and societal anxieties, explorations which rest at the core of the gothic and horror. Underneath the veneer of seemingly innocuous tales of a man imbibing in too much drink and killing … Read More Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat” and Frederick Douglass

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Comic Adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe’s “Hop-Frog”

After my recent post on Edgar Allan Poe’s “Hop Frog,” I did a little digging online and found two comic adaptations from Nightmare # 11 (1954) and Creepy # 11 (1966). “Hop-Frog” also appeared as a sub-plot in the 1964 adaptation of Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death”; however, I will not be examining that issue at this time. Today, I want to … Read More Comic Adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe’s “Hop-Frog”

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Fears of Insurrection in Hawthorne’s “My Kinsman, Major Molineux.”

Lately, I have been focusing on the Africanist presence in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Minister’s Black Veil,” and this exploration has led me to consider it in other texts written by Hawthorne, specifically “My Kinsman, Major Molineux.” This examination intrigues me because while doing preliminary research, I have not seen many scholars address how Hawthorne explores concepts of race and even slavery in his early … Read More Fears of Insurrection in Hawthorne’s “My Kinsman, Major Molineux.”

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Edgar Allan Poe’s “Hop-Frog” and Slave Rebellion

Ever since I first encountered Edgar Allan Poe’s “Hop-Frog, or the Eight Chained Ourang-Outangs,” I became intrigued by the issues Poe addressed through this Gothic story that takes place far away from American soil. The story first appeared in 1849, and we can read the story in an autobiographical manner, as some scholars have done. However, I would argue that we must also read … Read More Edgar Allan Poe’s “Hop-Frog” and Slave Rebellion

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Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Minister’s Black Veil” and Slavery

Upon reading Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Minster’s Black Veil” (1832), I began to think about the underlying cultural contexts surrounding the story’s initial publication. Namely, I started to think about it in relation to the issue of slavery and the abolitionist movement. While African or African American characters nor slavery appear in the story, the thematic elements lead me to consider Hawthorne’s story in relation … Read More Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Minister’s Black Veil” and Slavery