BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Sabre//Sabre VObject 4.5.8//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Europe/Zurich X-LIC-LOCATION:Europe/Zurich TZURL:http://tzurl.org/zoneinfo/Europe/Zurich BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:+0100 TZOFFSETTO:+0200 TZNAME:CEST DTSTART:19810329T020000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=3;BYDAY=-1SU END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0200 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 TZNAME:CET DTSTART:19961027T030000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=10;BYDAY=-1SU END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT UID:news453@english.philhist.unibas.ch DTSTAMP;TZID=Europe/Zurich:20231024T191418 DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Zurich:20231107T130000 SUMMARY:“The Lost Soul”: Theories of the Spirit in Edgar Allan Poe DESCRIPTION:When Edgar Allan Poe died in Baltimore in 1849\, he left behind a small trunk containing some personal papers and books. Among these item s was found a cheap bible in which he had marked several verses\, mainly i n pencil. The only passage underlined more enduringly with pen is Job 7:9: “As a cloud is consumed and vanisheth away: so he that goeth down to th e grave shall come up no more.” In his poetry and fiction Poe wrote agai n and again about reanimating bodies\, transmigratory spirits\, and indiss everable souls: in scripture he seems to have emphasized the bleakest and most transitory image of death he could find. Few of his contemporaries co nsidered Poe to be an earnest or orthodox Christian\, and his faith in the spiritual consolations of religion was paradoxical\, obsessive\, and self -consuming. Perhaps surprisingly to his admirers and detractors alike\, it was also detailed and at times pitilessly intellectual. In particular\, P oe’s religiousness centered around certain ideas about the soul attempti ng to characterize it in terms that would allow it to escape the consumed and vanishing cloud of the Old Testament. Drawing on his reception of anci ent metaphysics\, German idealism\, and nineteenth century science\, I wil l trace the outlines of Poe’s theorizing about the soul in his final pro se work Eureka as well as in central moments of his short stories througho ut his career. What we find in these sources is a series of definitions an d images picturing the soul as a mist\, a vessel of moral purity and corru ption\, an aperture for bodily sensation\, a field of magnetized energy\, a residue of personality\, a distinctive kind of motion\, a pair of ghostl y and abiding eyes. I hope to show that these competing ideas coalesce aro und an idiosyncratic dualism—in fear of eternity but hopeful for the res urrection of the flesh—that gives Poe’s writing an inventive\, torture d place in American religious thought.   X-ALT-DESC:

When Edgar Allan Poe died in Baltimore in 1849\, he left behi nd a small trunk containing some personal papers and books. Among these it ems was found a cheap bible in which he had marked several verses\, mainly in pencil. The only passage underlined more enduringly with pen is Job 7: 9: “As a cloud is consumed and vanisheth away: so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more.” In his poetry and fiction Poe wrote ag ain and again about reanimating bodies\, transmigratory spirits\, and indi sseverable souls: in scripture he seems to have emphasized the bleakest an d most transitory image of death he could find. Few of his contemporaries considered Poe to be an earnest or orthodox Christian\, and his faith in t he spiritual consolations of religion was paradoxical\, obsessive\, and se lf-consuming. Perhaps surprisingly to his admirers and detractors alike\, it was also detailed and at times pitilessly intellectual. In particular\, Poe’s religiousness centered around certain ideas about the soul attemp ting to characterize it in terms that would allow it to escape the consume d and vanishing cloud of the Old Testament. Drawing on his reception of an cient metaphysics\, German idealism\, and nineteenth century science\, I w ill trace the outlines of Poe’s theorizing about the soul in his final p rose work Eureka as well as in central moments of his short stori es throughout his career. What we find in these sources is a series of def initions and images picturing the soul as a mist\, a vessel of moral purit y and corruption\, an aperture for bodily sensation\, a field of magnetize d energy\, a residue of personality\, a distinctive kind of motion\, a pai r of ghostly and abiding eyes. I hope to show that these competing ideas c oalesce around an idiosyncratic dualism—in fear of eternity but hopeful for the resurrection of the flesh—that gives Poe’s writing an inventiv e\, tortured place in American religious thought.  \;

DTEND;TZID=Europe/Zurich:20231107T140000 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR