Abstract: Edgar Allan Poe is one of the most unique writers in America. When most litterateurs of his same age were reveling in repeating romantic tones, Poe’s themes were mainly about decayed castles, terrifying gothic plots and morbid characters which always shocked who read them. Though not understood by the public who lived in the same era with him, Poe and his works are increasingly taken seriously with the growing popularity of horror stories in modern society. But as people read Poe’s horror stories, they often doubt what they can benefit from them except a great fear. So this paper tries to look for positive influences of Poe’s horror stories from the perspective of readers. Concrete, this paper is divided into four parts. Part one is an introduction, in which Poe’s literary status, the reasons why he writes horror stories and relative literature review will be introduced; Part two gives an introduction of reader-response criticism’ a literature theory that I will apply to what follows; Part three presents three kinds of positive energy triggered from Poe’s horror stories on the basis of reader-response criticism. They are to release negative emotion, look inward and improve yourself; Part four is a conclusion part. According to the analysis above, we come to such a conclusion: Poe’s horror stories do have distinctive value of existence. By reading them, readers will find a proper form to let off their repressed moodiness. At the same time, readers will also do some self-reflection when reading in order to adjust and perfect themselves in reality. |
