Edgar Allan Poe and the masses : the political economy of literature in antebellum America
Explores the antebellum literary environment in which Poe worked, an environment marked by economic conflict, political strife, and widespread foreboding over the rise of a mass audience. This book explains Poe's ambivalence toward nationalism and exploration, and presents an inquiry into the conflict between cryptography and common knowledge.
Print Book, English, 1999
Princeton University Press, Princeton (N.J.), 1999
X, 328 p. ill. 24 cm
9780691001999, 0691001995
1014755284
| Preface | |
| Ch. 1 | Introduction: Minor Writing and the Capital Reader |
| Ch. 2 | The Horrid Laws of Political Economy |
| Ch. 3 | Fables of Circulation: Poe's influence on the Messenger |
| Ch. 4 | Poe and the Masses |
| Pt. 2 | Race and Region |
| Ch. 5 | Average Racism: Poe, Slavery, and the Wages of Literary Nationalism |
| Ch. 6 | Subtle Barbarians: The Southern Voyage of Edgar Allan Poe |
| Pt. 3 | Mass Culture |
| Ch. 7 | The Code for Gold: Poe and Cryptography |
| Ch. 8 | Culture of Surfaces |
| Ch. 9 | The Investigating Angel: Poe, Babbage, and "The Power of Words" |
| Notes | |
| Index |