The Imp of the Perverse
Edgar Allan Poe
2 characteristics in the story: 1) concentration 2)
condensation
Selection of significant details (all is significant)
Poe’s theory: 1. unity of plot
2. brevity }
cause/effect
3. effect
2 stories in 1, or a story in between the lines. This is in Poe but
it’s developed by R. Piglia
Introduction: Exposition
Development
Conclusion (Denouement)
----------------II----------------
Essay -> scientific language 1845
2 parts:
-> In the name of a scientific community,
impersonal way (questioning science)
-> Murder
Contradictions: combativeness x self-preservation
perversiveness x
furtherance of good
Poe is generally interested in the areas that science
cannot explain:
unreason, madness, torn I
Showing science’s limitations, he’s working with a
topic which becomes very important in the 20th century: the
dissolution of the subject. Exploring 2 different things:
11)
Figure of the narrator that is not unified (double)
22)
Underlying subject, exploring the role of the writer.
The story suggests that the narrator is writing, sitting in prison, last line
says: “but why shall I say more?” addressing the modern writer and the
anonymous reader. 3 questions in the story: 1) identity problem
2) where is the imp?
3) judgement of his acts.
