Symbols in Edgar Allan Poe's Horror Stories - Book Report/Review Example

Poe’s poetry and short tales highly influenced the French Symbolists of the late 19th century, who in turn changed the course of modern literature. It is this theoretical and artistic arrangement that accounts for a great deal of Poe’s significance in literary history. Poe’s most noticeable input to the world of literature derives from the logical method he practised both as an inspired author and as a literary critic. His principle of literary creation has two central points:2) The construction of this single effect should not be left to chance or inspiration, but the smallest detail of style and subject should be the outcome of coherent deliberation on the part of the writer.

In poetry, this singular effect ought to arouse the reader’s sense of beauty, which Poe strongly associated with sorrow, strangeness, and loss and in text, the singular effect should be one that reveals some truth, as in ‘tales of ratiocination’ or works that evoke ‘terror, or passion, or horror.’Poe has influenced countless succeeding authors and is considered as a forerunner of major literary movements such as Symbolism and Surrealism. He, in turn, was also influenced by previous literary writers and movements.

His use of the demonic and the bizarre, evidence the impact of authors like Hoffman and Ann Radcliffe on Poe, whilst the gloom and melancholy in much of his work reflects an empathy with the Romantic movement of the early 19th century. Poe’s particular genius lies in his works in which he gives skilled artistic form both to his private obsessions and those of prior literary generations, yet at the same time producing new forms which gave a new means of expression for future writers.