Paradigms of reality in Poe's mad narrative

This study focuses on an examination of madness in four short stories by American author Edgar Allan Poe: "Ligeia," "Eleonora," "The Black Cat," and "The Fall of the House of Usher." Using Walter Fischer's theoretical communication framework, the Narrative Paradigm, the four stories are examined for narrative fidelity and narrative probability in an effort to more fully understand Poe's treatment of madness in first person narrators; "Ligeia" and "Eleonora" are compared as stories of a lost lover and the subsequent possibilities for madness due to guilt over marrying someone else. Next, "The Black Cat" is examined with a focus on the narrator's madness driving him to seek more and more severe forms of self-punishment due to guilt over violent abuse of his pet cat. Finally, "The Fall of the House of Usher" is examined as a look into the process of folie a deux, or shared madness.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (MA)

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

English

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Year

2002

Author dc:creator

• Burnett, Tamy Lynn

Contributors dc:contributor

• Robert Dodge

Statement dc:rights

• IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language

English

Identifier

https://oasis.library.unlv.edu/rtds/1476

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:oasis.library.unlv.edu:rtds-2475