J. Cole Gayle

STOP PUTTING YOUR GOTHIC WHERE IT DOESN'T BELONG: POE'S "BERENICE" IN THE SOUTHERN LITERARY MESSENGER

            In 1834, the Southern Literary Messenger established itself as the only and premier literary periodical in the southern United States. The original publishers and proprietors set out to publish and promote primarily Southern literature. Although Edgar Allan Poe, a Southerner, was writing in the South at the time, his stories are not characteristically Southern. “Berenice” by Poe appeared in the Southern Literary Messenger in March of 1835. “Berenice” shares few features with characteristic Southern writing. With little indication of place other than vague references to an ancient family and their “time-honored” home, the story takes on a European feel. “Berenice,” like most of Poe’s stories about horror and death, shows more Gothic than any other genre with its dark and ambiguous nature and twisted romance. The story centers around a young man who falls in love with his cousin once she becomes sickly and decrepit; he then becomes obsessed with the one part of her physical body that hadn’t become victim of her illness: her teeth. Poe’s writing, in both content and style, identifies itself as more like European Gothic and Horror rather than as Southern.

            The Southern Literary Messenger strived to be Southern in identity. The magazine’s established goal was to be the superlative literary magazine in the entire South. The magazine established its political individuality when it published a letter denouncing slavery. In order to appease to Southerners before and during the Civil War, the magazine swapped sides on the issue in order to maintain and defend its Southern identity.

            This paper resonates with the name of this Capstone Seminar: “Literary Magazines as Contexts and Contested Spaces.” Poe’s "Berenice" does not necessarily fit in with the goals and identity of the Southern Literary Messenger.