Edgar Allan Poe: A question of sport

Abstrakt

Edgar Allan Poe: A question of sport

The above-presented analysis demonstrates that Edgar Allan Poe — just like numerous other writers — was not indifferent towards sport. Literature does not exist in a vacuum. Sport has a great power of influence. It permeates different spheres of life and constitutes an important segment of culture. It creates a fragment of the world of literature as well. Sport has always occupied an important place in American society. The nineteenth century laid the foundations as far as creation of American sports landscape is concerned.34 This was the time when Poe lived and worked. Paradoxically, the writer whose best work is mostly concerned with terror and sadness, quite often — especially in his youth — abandoned himself to a life of pleasure and sports. The research also touched the question of Poe’s legacy in contemporary world, which is not only visible in literary works or films, but also in the sports realm, namely at American football stadiums. Hopefully, the paper is an eye-opener showing that Edgar Allan Poe, “one of the most controversial figures in American literature” 35 had many faces, and exploring his complex personality and rich legacy lets one convince oneself that sport constitutes a part of them.
Thanks to the recent rise of interest in sport among scholars in the humanities and social sciences, there has been a steady growth in the number of academic publications dealing with the subject of connections between literature and sport. Only selected aspects of this relation could be described in this article. Obviously, there is a need for further research as far as the presence of sport both in literature and in biographies of writers is concerned.