Nowadays, with the increasing development of globalization, cultural globalization has come right under its way. Cultural communication and research between countries has become more and more frequent.

Gothic fiction, one of gems of the world literature, is a genre or mode of literature and film with a combination of horror, death and romance. The research of it is always an important part of the literature research in cultural research field. As one of the most representative Gothic novelists in the history of the world literature, Allan Poe made great contribution to the development of Gothic fiction. His horror fictions are characterized by a distinctly romantic feature which exposes the dark side of the society. Poe’s Gothic writing style is dark and weird, revealing a morbid beauty. All of these features give readers a kind of thorough marrow of shock. Allan Poe’s novels give expression to the horrific and quirky Gothic style as well as his unique aesthetic elements which embody a perfect combination of terror and beauty. Poe had not only inherited the characters of traditional Gothic novels but also made his own innovative development which made him an important and innovative reinterpreter of the Gothic.

In recent years, the rise of study culture has had a great impact on studies of Allan Poe. As one of the most important representatives in the history of American literature, Western literary critics have been studying on him during the past 190 years. Foreign researchers have made an all-rounded research on Allan Poe based on the traditional and innovative study. They have broadened research fields, enlarged research perspectives, diversified research methods constantly. There are many research teams like Poe Foundation, Poe Studies Association, The Raven Society and so on. And the research data like research papers, books, videos or DVD are too numerous to mention one by one. So, the foreign research about Allan Poe has already been very ripe. In China, this research started relatively later than that of foreigners. But it has a rapid development since 1988 when Chinese scholars made a comprehensive research and published a lot of research papers which can be divided into many kinds. So, the domestic research on Allan Poe develops fast at present. However, through the comparison of achievements between foreign research and domestic research, there is still an obvious gap between them. The domestic research still need improvement in profundity and breadth. So, domestic researchers need to find newer research perspectives to achieve diversify.

Ligeia is a short story of Allan Poe which describes that the narrator reunites with his deceased lover Ligeia from the first-person perspective. The fiction is a typical Gothic horror novel as well as a literary work which interprets Allan Poe’s aesthetic thoughts perfectly. It is regarded as one of Poe’s most successful fictions. Through the words, readers can feel a unique character of Allan Poe- terror in beauty. From the perspective of innovation, terror in beauty is an relatively new topic. In addition, it is easier for readers to understand Allan Poe’s Gothic style by an analysis from the perspective of terror in beauty. So, as an early representative of Allan Poe, Ligeia is worthy of study whether from the perspective of tradition or the perspective of innovation.

2. 研究的基本内容与方案

The main content of this thesis is an analysis of Allan Poe’s Gothic style in the novel Ligeia which he used to reveal the terror in beauty. So the writer will find the typical Allan Poe’s Gothic style in this fiction and analyze how these features are used to make a perfect combination of terror and beauty. The original text is the most important and useful tool that the researcher can use to get information as much as possible because it is the most visible expression of the author. Therefore, the writer will start from the words of the original text and make a detailed analysis of Poe’s Gothic style like environmental description, psychological description, preference for the fantastic plots and characters, madness and extreme emotion and so on. These features all represent the terror in beauty throughout the novel. The thesis will make the classification and integration of them.

The thesis will be completed by the method of looking up for relevant information including references and videos. Through massive reading related research works, the writer can summarize a frame of research work. Then the writer will read and analyze the text with the purpose of finding the relationship between the terror in beauty and Poe’s Gothic style. At last, the writer will draw a conclusion of the analysis and point out the deficiencies of the research.

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