English 251 Caskey American Literature I

Link out to a Research Starter on Edgar Allan Poe.

Link out to background information and plot summary on the work.

Character overview, critical essays, work overview, biography, and plot summary from Gale's Short Stories for Students, Volume 2.

From Critical Insights: An essay is presented on the short story "The Fall of the House of Usher" by American writer Edgar Allan Poe. It reveals that the story involves psychic and supernatural influences on the emotions and imagination of the narrator Roderick Usher. The author cites Poe's expertise in arousing a sense of earthly terror which remains vague, hinted, and mysterious.

Streaming Video from Films On Demand: n this introduction to Edgar Allan Poe's life and work from the Famous Authors series, viewers follow Poe's early life and fortunate adoption by the Allans. Poe's relationship with Frances Allan was tender, but he and John Allan did not get along. His stepfather sent him away to university and then cut him off completely. In response, Poe went to Boston and joined the army, but persisted writing. Eventually being dismissed from West Point, he went to live with Poe relatives in Baltimore and continue his writing and publishing. There he fell in love with his young cousin Virginia and brought her to Richmond, Virginia and later to New York and Philadelphia, to live with him throughout his literary ups and downs. (36 minutes)

Link out to a Research Starter on Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado".

This classic tale of revenge and murder depicts a victim lured to his doom by the false promise of riches—in this case, a highly prized cask of vintage wine. Pomerleau portrays both victim and villain with consummate skill as greed is punished with inescapable and eternal imprisonment. (20 minutes)

Link out to a Research Starter on Herman Melville.

Streaming Video: This is Melville's sardonic and symbolic story of a copyist at a Wall Street law firm who refuses to conform, responding to all requests with, "I prefer not to." Autobiographical in its despair over the public's failure to understand the writer, prophetic in its foreshadowing of 20th-Century Absurdism, "Bartleby the Scrivener" provides a window into the work of Melville and a convincing argument that he may be at his best in the short story medium.

Link to the Critical Insights volume on Herman Melville.

Streaming Video from Films On Demand: his introduction to Herman Melville's life and work from the Famous Authors series begins by introducing the city of New York, Melville's hometown, and the influence living in the busiest maritime port in the world had on his work. Melville eventually left home to work on a sailboat, and soon went to New Bedford, Massachusetts, to become a crew member on a whaling ship, an experience that he used when writing the masterpiece Moby-Dick. The film details the dangerous work of whaling and Melville's experiences at sea. (34 minutes)

Link out to a Research Starter on Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown".

Streaming Video: Was there evil lurking in the gloomy New England woods the night that young Goodman Brown went on his secret errand? Or did he bring the evil with him, locked within his own heart? This program features an outstanding adaptation of Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic tale-shot on location in historic Salem-that deftly captures the story's mystery and menace. In addition, a discussion of the life of Hawthorne and the Salem witch trials provides the historical context for this dark gem of American fiction.

"Young Goodman Brown." Short Stories for Students, edited by Kathleen Wilson, vol. 1, Gale, 1997, pp. 294-311.

Sterling, Laurie A. “How to Write about ‘Young Goodman Brown.’” Bloom's How to Write about Nathaniel Hawthorne, Chelsea House, 2017. Bloom's Literature, online.infobase.com/Auth/Index?aid=4556&itemid=WE54&articleId=45764.