Po-etycka kosmologia
Po-etic Cosmology

Edgar Allan Poe's "Eureka"

Author(s): Marek Wilczyński
Subject(s): Studies of Literature, American Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: Edgar Allan Poe; Eureka; cosmology; universe; catastrophe
Summary/Abstract: The paper is a brief overview of the circumstances under which Edgar Allan Poe presented his cosmological “poem” to the public, the early reception of its printed text, as well as links connecting Eureka with some of Poe’s tales. Since the main point of the tract is a theory of the expanding and contracting universe, which implies a recurrent catastrophe, such tales as, e.g., "The Colloquy of Monos and Una" and "The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion", and "The Power of Words" anticipate the conclusion formulated in the idiom of science. Even Poe’s most popular tale, The Fall of the House of Usher seems to be based on a reduction of two to one and then to nothing, later to be found in Eureka. In the final part of the essay, some key examples of the renewed interest in Poe’s work in the 20th century, which either address the motif of catastrophe or refer directly to the writer’s last publication, are mentioned to demonstrate that "Eureka" did not attract much critical attention at that time.

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