Böcker av Paul Christian Jones

This book builds upon recent theoretical approaches that define queerness as more of a temporal orientation than a sexual one to explore how Edgar Allan Poe's literary works were frequently invested in imagining lives that contemporary readers can understand as queer, as they stray outside of or aggressively reject normative life paths, including heterosexual romance, marriage, and reproduction, and emphasize individuals' present desires over future plans. The book's analysis of many of Poe's best-known works, including "e;The Raven,"e; "e;The Fall of the House of Usher,"e; "e;The Black Cat,"e; "e;The Masque of the Red Death,"e; and "e;The Murders in the Rue Morgue,"e; show that his attraction to the liberation of queerness is accompanied by demonstrations of extreme anxiety about the potentially terrifying consequences of non-normative choices. While Poe never resolved the conflicts in his thinking, this book argues that this compelling imaginative tension between queerness and temporal normativity is crucial to understanding his canon.

Explores the intriguing cooperation of America's writers-including major figures such as Walt Whitman, John Greenleaf Whittier, E.D.E.N. Southworth, and Herman Melville-with reformers, politicians, clergymen, and periodical editors who attempted to end the practice of capital punishment in the US during the 1840s and 1850s.