Poe and Women: Recognition and Revision

Edgar Allan Poe notoriously identified “the death . . . of a beautiful woman” as “the most poetical topic in the world.” Despite that cringeworthy claim, Poe drew creative inspiration from female authors, and women figure prominently among the artists and critics fascinated by the writer’s creative legacy. A book-length work about the various ways in which women—Poe’s female contemporaries, scholars, writers and artists, as well as women characters in Poe adaptations—have influenced perceptions of Poe is long overdue. Covering a time frame that extends from the mid-nineteenth century to the twenty-first, this collection features essays about all of these subjects. One goal of this book is recognizing how women have helped establish Poe’s reputation in the U.S. and abroad. The other is drawing attention to ways that constructions of womanhood accepted by Poe are revised in popular culture, a sphere where artists—in film, fiction, and comics—build on the subversive potential of Poe’s work while exposing its ideological limitations. Poe and Women will appeal not only to Poe specialists but also to anyone interested in his ongoing relevance to gender discussions inside and outside the academy.