The Man in the Transatlantic Crowd: The Early Reception of Edgar Allan Poe in Victorian England
type: CreativeWork
description: An important anomaly in transatlantic criticism is the contrast between transatlantic theory and the applied criticism of literature through a transatlantic lens. While most transatlantic scholars assert the value of individual strands of thought throughout the globe and stress the importance of overcoming national hegemonic barriers in literature, applied criticism generally favors an older model that privileges British literary thought in the nineteenth century. I claim that both British and American writers can influence each other, and that mutations in thought can travel both ways across the Atlantic. To argue this claim, I begin by analyzing the influence of Blackwood's Magazine on the literary aesthetic of Edgar Allan Poe. While Poe's early works read very similar to Blackwood's articles, he positioned himself against Blackwood's in the middle of his career and developed a different, although derivative, approach to psychological fiction. I next follow this psychological strain back across the Atlantic, where Oscar Wilde melded aspects of Poe's fiction to his own unique form of satire and social critique.
abstract: An important anomaly in transatlantic criticism is the contrast between transatlantic theory and the applied criticism of literature through a transatlantic lens. While most transatlantic scholars assert the value of individual strands of thought throughout the globe and stress the importance of overcoming national hegemonic barriers in literature, applied criticism generally favors an older model that privileges British literary thought in the nineteenth century. I claim that both British and American writers can influence each other, and that mutations in thought can travel both ways across the Atlantic. To argue this claim, I begin by analyzing the influence of Blackwood's Magazine on the literary aesthetic of Edgar Allan Poe. While Poe's early works read very similar to Blackwood's articles, he positioned himself against Blackwood's in the middle of his career and developed a different, although derivative, approach to psychological fiction. I next follow this psychological strain back across the Atlantic, where Oscar Wilde melded aspects of Poe's fiction to his own unique form of satire and social critique.
author: Wall, Brian Robert
language: English
keywords: Oscar Wilde, Edgar Allan Poe, transatlanticism, transatlantic criticism, literary criticism, nineteenth-century literature, comparative literature, mutation, English literature, American literature, British literature, transatlantic studies, print studies, English Language and Literature
date modified: 2026-07-24T01:29:20Z
provider: Brigham Young University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Brigham Young University - Provo