THE AESTHETICS OF TERROR AND THE SUBLIME IN EDGAR ALLAN POE’S „THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER”
THE AESTHETICS OF TERROR AND THE SUBLIME IN EDGAR ALLAN POE’S „THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER”

Summary/Abstract: Edgar Allan Poe’s unique sense of the sublime as an aesthetic experience that challenges the reader’ imagination in profound and often unexpected ways finds expression in his well-known short story “The Fall of the House of Usher,” a story in which the main characters are compelled to act and react in a setting that both mirrors and accelerates their physical and psychological degradation. Relying extensively on Burke’s notion of terror as the ruling principle of the sublime, while also incorporating Kant’s idea of the sublime as an experience that stretches the boundaries of human understanding, Poe creates a masterpiece in which the line between reality and supernatural horror is dissolved in order to explore the greatest emotions that man is capable of.

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