Shen Dan - Style and rhetoric of short narrative fiction covert progressions behind overt plots

The current ethical turn in narrative studies suggests a congenial context in which to clear up a long-term misunderstanding about Poes view on prose fiction. Critics widely held that Poes aestheticism covers prose fiction as well as poetry (see below), but in effect, Poe holds a non-aesthetic view of the subject matter of prose fiction. In this genre, Poe makes an unequivocal distinction between structural design and subject matter. While putting the structural design of prose fiction completely on a par with that of poetry (both confined to the aesthetic trajectory), Poe treats the subject matter of prose fiction as different in nature from that of poetryas often based on Truth and diametrically opposed to Beauty. Commenting on Nathaniel Hawthornes Twice-Told Tales (1842), Poe observes:

We have said that the tale has a point of superiority even over the poem. In fact, while the rhythm of this latter is an essential aid in the development of the poems highest ideathe idea of the Beautifulthe artificialities of this rhythm are an inseparable bar to the development of all points of thought or expression which have their basis in Truth. But Truth is often, and in very great degree, the aim of the tale. The writer of the prose tale, in short, may bring to his theme a vast variety of modes or inflections of thought and expression(the ratiocinative, for example, the sarcastic or the humorous) which are not only antagonistical to the nature of the poem, but absolutely forbidden by one of its most peculiar and indispensable adjuncts; we allude of course, to rhythm. It may be added, here, par parenthse, that the author who aims at the purely beautiful in a prose tale is laboring at great disadvantage. For Beauty can be better treated in the poem. (Poe 1984a: 573)

According to Poe, it is in effect the genre-specific rhythm that makes Beauty the sole legitimate province of the poem (Poe 1984b: 16), while the prose tale is open to a wide range of thematic materials that have their basis in Truth and are antagonistical to Beauty. Poes Truth, though, has a much wider application than Truth in what Poe calls the heresy of The Didactic the assumption that the ultimate object of all Poetry is Truth and that Truth simply means the inculcation of a moral (Poe 1984c: 75). For Poe, however, Truth constitutes the basis for a wide range of modes of thought and expression, including but not confined to the ethical.

This non-aesthetic thematic conception has been blocked from critical view by Poes consistent aesthetic conception of formal design. For Poe all works of literary art should achieve the most important unity of effect (Poe 1984a: 571). In order to obtain structural unity, the writer of a prose narrative, like the writer of a poem, should preconceive a single effect and then invent and combine events for this pre-established design. Moreover, in order to preserve unity of effect, a prose narrative, like a poem, should be fairly short, able to be read at one sitting (1984a: 572).

Since behind Poes consistent emphasis on aesthetic formal design lies his non-aesthetic conception of the tales subject matter, Poe regards Hawthornes work as an exemplar of good prose writing, and he readily stresses Hawthornes ethical concerns (Poe 1984a: 57475). One tale by Hawthorne that Poe (ibid.: 574) particularly appreciates and praises is Wakefield, which is marked by strong ethical concerns. The omniscient narrator welcomes the reader to ramble with [him] through the twenty years of Wakefields vagary in order to find the moral of Wakefields marital delinquency (Hawthorne 1974: 131). The narrator, from an ethical position superior to that of the protagonist, persuades his reader of the morbid vanity, selfishness, and ruthlessness that underlie Wakefields folly. Although Poe, out of a strong concern for dramatic effects, avoided such explicit moral teaching by an omniscient narrator, he has in some of his tales, such as The Tell-Tale Heart, implicitly and subtly conveyed a moral through subtle stylistic choices in a unified structural design.

Poes insistent emphasis on aesthetic structural unity has caused many critics to overlook his non-aesthetic and ethically related conception of the subject matter of prose fiction. This underlies the widely held view of Poe as being closely associated, in the domain of prose fiction as well as that of poetry, with Art for Arts sake. Critics have argued that Poe banished the didactic from the proper sphere of art and that there is an apparent lack of interest in moral themes throughout Poes work (Moldenhauer 1968: 285; Cleman 1991: 623). Vincent Buranelli more specifically asserts that sin and crime are absent from Poes fictional world, because Poe does not touch morality and the terrible deeds that abound there are matters of psychology, abnormal psychology, not of ethics (1961: 72).

John Cleman extends Poes aesthetic of poetry to prose narrative and then differentiates between the two genres only in terms of aesthetic concerns: To some degree, this seeming indifference to moral issues can be explained by Poes aesthetic in which the Moral Sense, Conscience, and Duty have, at best, only collateral relations with the primary concerns: for poetry The Rhythmical Creation of Beauty, and for prose fiction the unity of effect or impression (Cleman 1991: 62324). Such differentiation between the two genres is undesirable since, in Poes view, the unity of effect or impression is as important for poetry as for prose fiction. The real difference between the two genres lies in aim or subject matter: Beauty for poetry, and Truth for prose fiction.

When critics acknowledge Poes concern with Truth in prose narrative, they tend simply to drag it into the aesthetic trajectory. John S. Whit-ley, for instance, writes: While the highest idea of a poem is the idea of the Beautiful, Poe argues that the aim of the tale is Truth. but perhaps by Truth he really meant the working of every part of the storyrhythm, plot, character, language, referencestowards a denouement which ends the story logically, consistently and satisfactorily (2000: xii). Thus, Poes separation of the structural design and subject matter of the tale is unwittingly transformed into a unified conception hinging solely on the unity of effect. Joseph J. Moldenhauer, even as he challenges the traditional view that Poe disregarded morality, is still confined to structural unity: According to Poe, the supreme criterion for the literary performance is not truthfulness, moral or otherwise, but rather unity (1968: 286). Like many other critics, Moldenhauer puts the genre of prose fiction completely on a par with poetry, and, in challenging the traditional view of Poes disregard for morality in literature, he limits his discussion to what Poe means by Beauty, treating the subject matter of poetry as the subject matter of literature in general (ibid.: 28689). As a result, Moldenhauers effort to bring morality back to Poes theory of literaturethrough aesthetic super-morality (ibid.: 289)only adds to the misunderstanding of Poes view on the subject matter of prose fiction.