摘 要

埃德加·爱伦·坡是文学史上最伟大的诗人之一。其诗歌大多构建了一个既唯美又悲情的诡异国度，具有超前的神秘性、梦幻性、心理性，沉浸于爱伦坡的诗歌王国是一种独特的美学体验与心灵的激荡。现代以来，对爱伦坡作品的解读逐渐多样化。文学作品的跨学科研究受到越来越的重视，用语言学的理论研究爱伦坡的诗歌不失为一种新的方法。本文通过分析十余首爱伦坡作品中主题为美丽女子死亡的诗歌，结合认知语言学中意象图式的理论和各类意象图式的定义，并对其中《安娜贝尔·李》、《尤娜路姆》、《睡美人》三首进行重点分析，从认知层面上分析意象图式在主题烘托、情感表达、结构塑造上的作用，以便读者更好理解爱伦坡诗歌及其诗歌原理，进一步对爱伦坡诗歌进行跨学科现代阐释。

关键词：爱伦坡诗歌；美丽女子死亡；意象图式；认知；诗歌原理

Abstract

Edgar Allan Poe is one of the greatest poets in literary history. Most of his poems create a beautiful and sorrowful kingdom of strangeness. Aware of the mysterious, dreamy, and psychological elements, readers can indulge themselves in the special aesthetic experience and soul excitement. Since modern era, the explications on Poe’s work have been diversified. When more attention has been given to the analysis of literary work with cross-disciplinary aspect, it is a new field to interpret Poe’s poems with theories of cognitive linguistics. By summarizing more than ten poems whose motif is the death of a beautiful woman and combining with the perspective of image schemata in cognitive linguistics and definitions of image schemas, the paper aims to, from a cognitive level, elucidate the function of image schemata in theme presentation, sensibility expression, and structural establishment after selective analysis of three poems named “Annabel Lee”, “Ulalume”, “The Sleeper” so that the readers can foster a deeper understanding on Poe’s poems and his poetic principles , and finally further modern interpretation of his poems interdisciplinarily.

Key Words: Edgar Allan Poe’s poem, the death of a beautiful woman, image schemata, cognition, poetic principle

Contents

1 Introduction 1

1.1 Edgar Allen Poe and His Theory on Poetry Writing 1

1.2 Image Schemata and its Application in Literature 2

1.3 Framework of the Thesis 3

2 Analysis of Image Schemata in Poe’s Poems 5

2.1 The Common Image Schemas in Twelve Poe’s Poems 5

2.2 Elaboration of Image Schemas in Three Poems 6

2.2.1 Image Schemas in “Annabel Lee” 7

2.2.2 Image Schemas in “Ulalume” 7

2.2.3 Image Schemas in “The Sleeper” 8

3 Image Schemata’s Contribution to Poe’s Poems 10

3.1 The Correlation Analysis of Image Schemas in Poems and the Motif about a Beautiful Woman’s Death 10

3.2 The Effect Created by Those Image Schemas 11

3.3 The Function of Image Schemata to Poe’s Writing Principle 12

4 Conclusions 13

References 14

Acknowledgements 15

The Interpretation of the Theme of a Beautiful Woman’s Death in Edgar Allan Poe’s Poems from the Perspective of Image Schemata

1 Introduction

At the beginning, this paper will give background information on the life of Edgar Allan Poe and his poetic principles. After presenting a brief literature review about recent research of his work and an introduction of image schemata in cognitive linguistics, the paper takes the feasibility of interpretation on Edgar Poe’s poems from cognitive level into consideration, and then the thesis will be stated at the end of this part.

1.1 Edgar Allan Poe and His Theory on Poetry Writing