Detection, Insanity and Mood. the Main Aspects of Edgar Allan Poe’s Short Stories and Their Influence on the Movie the Raven

Seminar paper from the year 2015 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,0, University of Duisburg-Essen, language: English, abstract: Poe’s short stories and their impact on the cinema today attract me. Because of that and because of the rising importance of film studies I decided to choose a current film adaptation of Poe’s tales for my work; the mystery-thriller The Raven with John Cusack. Three main aspects of Poe’s short stories are the theme of detection, the theme of insanity and the mood with which he builds up a dreamy semi-reality. So I want to prove the hypothesis that those central elements of Poe’s short stories are still up to date and have a great influence on movies like The Raven. Therefore I will not only use the primary sources of Poe’s short stories and the film The Raven, I will also take into consideration major works by, for instance, G. R. Thompson and Benjamin F. Fisher.