芭芭拉坎塔卢波 (left) 理查德·科普利 at the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan. The hotel is the site of the fourth International 爱伦·坡会议, 长期的同事和朋友联合起来主持哪一个.
NEWS YORK, NY -- What do you think of when you hear the name 埃德加·爱伦·坡? A raven; dark and stormy nights; and other macabre images of horror and mystery? 你对坡本人的看法是什么? A lonely drunkard; a penniless tormented soul obsessed with death?
如果你想到了这些想法, 你当然不是一个人, 你也不一定都错了. 但根据中国博彩平台两位教授的研究, 谁也是著名的坡中国博彩平台, 如果你只知道这些, 你只是触及了深层复杂的表面, brilliant, and even at times happy man whose work continues to enthrall readers around the world.
Take a look at the 36-page program listing more than 100 topics that was presented at The Poe Studies Associations’ Fourth International 爱伦·坡会议 Feb. 3月26日，3月1日，在曼哈顿罗斯福酒店. The schedule, 由会议联合主席芭芭拉坎塔卢波策划, 中国博彩平台的英语副教授, 理查德·科普利, 中国博彩平台杜波依斯分校名誉教授, featured three days of scholarly panels that focused on everything from individual works (“The Black Cat,“鄂榭家族的灭亡。,“我找到了”)到坡的生活(坡在纽约), Poe Places, 坡与酗酒), to more contemporary explorations of Poe in the digital world and issues of gender and homosexuality.
The annual conference is an international meeting with presenters hailing from 24 countries including Algeria, Iceland, 中国和西班牙. 这是苏珊·杰夫·塔恩的慷慨礼物, helped pay for the travel expenses of many of the international scholars, 对学生参与者也是如此. 根据Kopley的说法, Tane has amassed one of the most impressive private collections of Poe artifacts in existence.
“Our beautiful program is, so far, my favorite part of this whole conference,坎塔卢波说. “看到它被印出来, 把它握在手里, 让两年半的计划和工作付诸东流.”
With a long and impressive body of published Poe scholarship between them, both she and Kopley were up to the task of chairing the conference. But two and a half years ago, neither jumped up and down to take it on.
“We were sitting at the PSA (Poe Studies Association) meeting and they asked for a volunteer to chair the next conference,” said Kopley. 芭芭拉和我面面相觑. Neither of us wanted to do it ourselves, but we both said, ‘I’ll do it if you do it, too.’”
Cantalupo and Kopley met as colleagues at Penn State DuBois and formed a kinship over their shared love of literature, 特别是坡, the focus of both professors’ doctoral dissertations and ongoing scholarship. 不仅如此, their respective Poe research shares something else in common in that it focuses on characteristics less commonly known to the average Poe reader.
Cantalupo was first enthralled by Poe’s extremely dense and complicated prose poem, “Eureka,她在论文中对此进行了探讨. 从那以后的几年里, 她写了大量关于坡爱美的文章, most recently illustrated in the 2014 publication of “Poe and the Visual Arts” (中国博彩平台 Press), 关于这个主题的第一本书.
“'Eureka' presented a challenge, and I was determined to decipher it. The intellectual acumen Poe displayed in it was attractive to me as a scholar,” she said. “My work has not been to dissuade people from appreciating the more well-known Gothic tales and poems, 但是要添加一些东西, another side, 在对话中.”
Kopley found his way to Poe through a general love for the antebellum period of American Literature. 在学习期间，他读了爱伦坡唯一一部完成的小说, 《南塔开特的亚瑟·戈登·皮姆的故事,并“被它击倒了”.”
“It’s a fascinating sea narrative that becomes more strange and amazing as it goes on,” said Kopley. “In fact, 这本书的最后一段是如此神秘和令人困惑, 它被从英国出版的版本中删除了, 但也被认为是坡最伟大的作品. To me, that was worth devoting years of research toward figuring out.”
每个人都在进行自己的爱伦坡研究, they also began connecting with a community of other Poe scholars. 在坎塔卢波转到利哈伊谷校区后不久, she began editing a four-page Poe newsletter that soon turned into a 24-page journal, 埃德加·爱伦·坡评论." Both have continuously been active in the PSA (Kopley is a past president), which was established in 1972 and now boasts more than 250 members worldwide.
So what is it about this author that keeps people reading and re-examining his work?
“我想我们都对他有好感. He’s the first writer we really ‘got’ when we sat in grade school or high school and read his short stories and poems,” said Kopley. “毫无疑问，他是讲这些恐怖故事的高手. 他开创了侦探小说这一体裁. And he did all of this and so much more by the time he died at 40 years old.”
“I’d add that his work continues to challenge people’s sense of who he is; it keeps people thinking,坎塔卢波说. “Much of his work is prescient; it’s still relevant.”
为大众服务, 疯狂天才的传奇形象, 黑暗，醉心于死亡和绝望, may persist. 事实上，坡的一生中也有悲剧和低谷. But there is plenty of evidence that there were great highs, even delight, in his short life.
And as they gather every four years to explore the many sides of Poe and his work face-to-face, Cantalupo, Kopley, and a host of Poe enthusiasts from around the world continue to provide ample ammunition to set the record on 埃德加·爱伦·坡 straight, evermore.
