EDGAR ALLAN POE'S "ANNABEL LEE"

OVERVIEW OF CLASS:

• Reminders
• Poe: key biographical and literary points
• Video: traditional, wholesome view of "Annabel Lee"
• Joint lecture/discussion/close reading of "Annabel Lee"

REMINDERS:

• Reminder: week away from research paper draft day
• Reminder: final exam essay questions are available on "Grade Task Descriptions" page
• Quotation Guide for final available now

POE: KEY BIOGRAPHICAL and LITERARY POINTS

• Master of horror, widely credited with creation of detective fiction
• Powerful literary critic
• Orphaned son of actors, raised by uncle in fairly wealthy style but tempestuous relationship
• A lifetime of lost/dead women (mother (dead), first fiance (left him), aunt who raised him (dead TB), wife (dead TB), several failed romantic bids)
• Famously married his 13-year-old cousin Virginia when she was 13 and he was 27.
• Struggles with poverty, gambling, and alcoholism.
• Died under mysterious circumstances.
• Online biographies: Poetry Foundation, Poe Museum, Biography

VIDEO: TRADITIONAL, WHOLESOME VIEW OF "ANNABEL LEE"

JOINT LECTURE/DISCUSSION/CLOSE READING OF "ANNABEL LEE"

• Close reading requires direct reference to textual evidence to make a claim
• Use this approach when discussing your chosen texts in your upcoming research paper: while scholarship and secondary sources are important, if a writer cannot point to a passage from the text to support a claim, it weakens your argument.
• For purposes of this joint lecture/discussion of the poem, we will work towards the following thesis: "Annabel Lee" is not the ultimate testimony of a widowed soulmate, but rather an adolescent stalker poem.