Neither Genius nor Fudge: Edgar Allan Poe and Eureka

• Autores: G. St. John Stott
• Localización: 452ºF: Revista de Teoría de la Literatura y Literatura Comparada, ISSN-e 2013-3294, Nº. 1, 2009, págs. 52-64
• Idioma: español
• Enlaces
  • Texto completo (pdf)
• Resumen
  • español

    Eureka (1848) ha sido considerado superficialmente como una versión expandida de una conferencia sobre cosmología que Poe había dado ese mismo año. Sin embargo, la seriedad de este trabajo como un trabajo científico debería ser cuestionada. El tratamiento de algunos temas, que se encuentran en otros escritos de Poe, muestra que el autor no busca ser consistente. Entonces, el texto no parece el resultado de un interés serio por la argumentación científica. Por el contrario, debería ser considerado un engaño: un intento de revelar la credulidad de los lectores. Los engaños de Poe contaban con el hecho de que el reconocimiento de convenciones de género llevan a la confianza, y Eureka aprovecha y ridiculiza la confianza pública en conferenciantes cosmológicos como John Bovee Dods

  • English

    Eureka (1848) has been taken at face value as an expanded version of a lecture on cosmology that Poe gave earlier the same year. However, its seriousness as a work of science should be questioned. Its treatment of themes found in other works by Poe shows the author�s unconcern for consistency, and the text unlikely to have resulted from a serious engagement with scientific argument. Instead it should be approached as a hoax: an attempt to reveal the gullibility of its readers. Poe�s hoaxes relied for their effect on the trust created in readers by their recognition of generic conventions, and Eureka exploited and ridiculed public trust in cosmological lecturers such as John Bovee Dods

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