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Edgar Allan Poe wields more influence in the spheres of literature
and popular culture on a world scale than any other US author. This
influence, however, does not rely on the quality of Poe's texts
alone nor on the compellingly tragic nature of his biography; his
reputation and his ubiquitous presence owe much of their longevity
to the ways Poe has been interpreted and portrayed by his
advocates-other writers, translators, literary critics, literary
historians, illustrators, film makers, musicians-and packaged by
various mediators in the literary field, especially editors and
anthologizers. As this study demonstrates, the division between
Poe's advocates and the mediators who organize his work for
consumption by the reading public can be very porous since many of
Poe's most adamant proponents-Charles Baudelaire and Julio
Cortazar, for example-also anthologized, edited, and/or translated
his works. Anthologizing Poe: Editions, Translations, and
(Trans)national Canons focuses on the works produced by Poe's
anthologizers and editors, both the famous and the lesser-known,
whose labor often takes place behind the scenes. Poe's editors and
anthologizers exercise real power, and over the last 170 years,
they have crafted and framed the various Poes we recognize, revere,
cherish, and critique today.
Hagar's Daughter is Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins's first serial novel,
published in the Boston-based Colored American Magazine
(1901-1902). The novel itself features concealed and mistaken
identities, dramatic revelations, and extraordinary plot twists. In
Part 1, Maryland plantation heirs Hagar Sargeant and Ellis Enson
fall in love, marry, and have a daughter. However, Ellis's covetous
younger brother, St. Clair, claims that Hagar is of mixed-race
ancestry, putting her and her infant in peril. When Ellis is
presumed to be dead, St. Clair sells Hagar and her child into
slavery, and they presumably die when Hagar, in despair, leaps into
the Potomac River with her daughter. This is the backdrop for Part
2 (set twenty years later), which includes a high-profile murder
trial, an abduction plot, and a steady succession of surprises as
the young Black maid Venus Johnson assumes male clothing to solve a
series of mysteries that are both current and decades-old. The
appendices to this Broadview edition feature advertising for the
original publication, other writing by Hopkins and her
contemporaries, and reviews that situate the work within the
popular literature and political culture of its time.
This collection explores how anthologizers and editors of Edgar
Allan Poe play an integral role in shaping our conceptions of Poe
as the author we have come to recognize, revere, and critique
today. In the spheres of literature and popular culture, Poe wields
more global influence than any other U.S. author. This influence,
however, cannot be attributed solely to the quality of Poe's texts
or to his compellingly tragic biography. Rather, his continued
prominence as a writer owes much to the ways that Poe has been
interpreted, portrayed, and packaged by an extensive group of
mediators ranging from anthologizers, editors, translators, and
fellow writers to literary critics, filmmakers, musicians, and
illustrators. In this volume, the work of presenting Poe's texts
for public consumption becomes a fascinating object of study in its
own right, one that highlights the powerful and often overlooked
influence of those who have edited, anthologized, translated, and
adapted the author's writing over the past 170 years.
"A product of literary recovery at its very best. These carefully
researched essays help us to see how gender marginalized black
intellectuals who happened to be women." -- Claudia Tate, George
Washington University The Unruly Voice explores the literary and
journalistic career of Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins, a
turn-of-the-century African American writer who was editor in chief
of the Colored American Magazine, though it was not acknowledged on
the masthead. Hopkins wrote short fiction, novels, nonfiction
articles, and a play believed to be the first by an African
American woman. Versatile and politically committed, she was fired
when the magazine was bought by an ally of Booker T. Washington's
who disliked her editorial stands and unconciliatory politics. Even
though more than a thousand pages of Hopkins's works have been
brought back into print, The Unruly Voice is the first book devoted
exclusively to her writings and the significance she holds for
readers today. Contributors explore the social, political, and
historical conditions that informed her literary works.
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