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PHILOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Nuriyeva Nurana Majid
PhD, Associate Professor Azerbaijan University of Languages, Departament of Literature of Foreign Countries DOI: 10.24412/2520-6990-2022-29152-21-25 DEATH AS MYSTIC ELEMENT IN EDGAR ALLAN POE'S ORIENTALISM
Abstract.
During the period of literary and historical development of American literary history, which began in the 19th century, a tendency towards more orientalism was observed in a convex manner. The Western world, which has been studying Islam since the Middle Ages, realized that it was universal and in line with the European worldview. It is clear from this that Europe had already discovered Islam during its modernization. Nevertheless, the Western world today embraces and studies Sufism more than Islam. Today, Sufi ideas are popular in Europe, Africa and America. The Western world, which accepts Sufism as mystical Islam, argues that mystical practice and mystical understanding have different implications for Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Brahmanism, Buddhism, and Mani-chaeism. Mystical thought, which contains divine mysteries and knowledge, is one of the most important topics in the study of human history.
However, it is not correct to see Sufism as mysticism and to equate it with the mentioned sects. Thus, Sufism is in fact an Islamic philosophy, a tolerance that teaches Islamic morality. From this point of view, a number of writers in world literature have secretly or openly used Sufism in their works. One of such writers was Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), a prominent American writer, poet, and literary critic. His stories and poems, which reflect his philosophical views on the East, have many notable features that express an Orientalist tendency. Not only exotic Eastern motifs, but also the expression of Eastern thinking, especially Sufi symbolism, are widely used in the works of the famous artist.
Key words: Edgar Allan Poe, Orientalism, Mystic Element, Sufi symbolism
Introduction. It is very important and necessary to study the value that the famous American writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) gave to the Eastern Islamic world in the 19th century, and the mastery he reflected on this subject. Another important aspect that raises the issue is the current processes of globalization and integration in the world. The orientation of East-West, Islamic-Christian relations to a new historical course - the process of convergence of different cultures and spiritual values, makes it necessary to study the historical and spiritual relations in this direction in more depth.
Edgar Allan Poe, who left a deep mark on the memory of his readers with his stories, became a genius not only in American literature, but also in world literature as a master of words. The role of Eastern images and the charm of the Middle East in Edgar Allan Poe's work, especially in his poetry are great. His poems, short stories and essays contain a number of images from the Quran. It is known that Edgar Allan Poe influenced not only genres such as poetry, horror stories, detective, gothic and science fiction, but also a whole literary heritage. Even today, we see in his writings that words and behaviors that we have difficulty understanding affect the human spirit. Although perceptions, artistic and literary tastes have changed over the centuries, Edgar Allan Poe's innovations in the history of literature have maintained their place at the highest peak. He is still engaged in philological thought as an object of research with his multifaceted creativity, which has surpassed both his own period and the ones that came after him.
For this reason, the study of Edgar Allan Poe and Orientalism is of particular scientific and strategic im-
portance. The aim is to study the problem of the inclusion of Eastern themes, motifs, plots, images and colors in the work of Edgar Allan Poe, and to give a scientific and theoretical value to the existing material. For this purpose, the following tasks are envisaged:
- Clarify the historical and literary-aesthetic reasons for Edgar Allan Poe's appeal to the subject of the East;
- Determine the picture of the main sources used by the writer; reveal the forms and methods of their use;
- Analyze the craftsmanship demonstrated when using oriental motifs, images and plots.
Edgar Allan Poe's creativity in literary criticism
Edgar Allan Poe's creativity is multifaceted and complex. The writer-poet continued and developed his literary activity in various genres. Literary criticism continues to study Edgar Allan Poe's creativity in various directions. It should be noted that a modern researcher studying the biography of Edgar Allan Poe is facing difficulties. For many years, Edgar Allan Poe has been portrayed as a sick man with extremely bad habits, based on the writings of critic Rufus Wilmot Griswold who spoke biasedly about his life after his death. Such a presentation of the writer's personality could not fail to affect his assessment as a pathological reflection of his work. For this reason, there are still many mysteries and legends surrounding his identity, and his death itself is mysterious and incomprehensible to his contemporaries. At present, modern criticism is based on the biography of the writer-poet Edgar Allan Poe, developed by A.H. Quinn, as well as the two-volume letters of E.A. Poe, prepared by J.W. Ostrom [11; 27].
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In recent American literature, there are scholars who have theoretically studied the issues of Orientalism and presented them to the scientific community. It should be noted that the study of American Orientalism is based on post-colonialism. Postcolonialism is a separate branch of research that constitutes the cultural heritage of colonialism and includes many theories covering a number of areas, including philosophy, cinema, political science, socio-economic geography, sociology, feminism, religious and theological research, and literature. Edward Said described and criticized these events in his works, such as "Orientalism" (1978) and "Culture and Imperialism" (1993). This topic later became "postcolonial theory" in the works of such intellectuals as Gayatri Spivak and Homi K. Bhabha [2; 14].
The greatest intellectual influence of Edward Said's "Orientalism" was in the fields of literary theory, cultural research, and human geography, and thus the field of postcolonial research was founded. Edward Said's method of poststructuralist analysis is based on the analytical techniques of Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault, and the prospects for Orientalism are Anwar Abdulmalik ("Orientalism in Crisis" (1963)), Maxime Rodinson ("Muhammad", original French publication: 1960; Islam and Capitalism (1973), the original French publication of "Islam et le capitalism" (1966), and Richard William Southern ("Western Views of Islam in the Middle Ages" (1962)).
A number of scholars investigating the 19th century American literature draw the attention. The research works may be noticed such as "Edgar Allan Poe's Orientalism" by Kurt F. Leidecker, a professor of philosophy at Mary Washington College, "The Early American Quran: Islamic Scripture and US Canon" and other Orientalist works by Jeffrey Einboden, Professor of the 19th century American Literature and Comparative Literature at Northern Illinois University and "Orientalism - Edgar Allan Poe and the Middle East" by Karen Grumberg, Professor of Middle East Studies at the University of Texas at Austin [6; 7].
Orientalism in the 19th century American literature was more concerned with Eastern philology than with Western literary critics, including "Hermeneutics of Orientalism" by Dr. Hafiz Mohd Arif, head of the Department of Languages at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Integral University and so on.
In literary criticism W. Bittner (Poe: A Biography, Boston, 1963, London, 1964), T.H. T.N. Chivers (Life of Poe, ed. By K.Davis, N.Y., 1952), J.B. Hubbell (Eight Americans Authors. A Review of Research and Criticism, N.Y., 1963), B.E.Spiller (The American Literary Dilemma and Edgar /Allan Poe. -In: The Great Experiment in American Literature, ed. by C. Bode, N.Y., 1961) and other Western critics supports the approach to the study of Edgar Allan Poe from a biographical point of view. For American literature, Edgar Allan Poe is, first and foremost, one of the founders and creators of the national journalistic tradition. In this sense, his critical works required a separate study, which is confirmed by numerous theoretical and genetic studies of Western literary critics (for example,
M. Allan, M. Alterton, W. Cooke, Jackson Dawid Kelly, B.R. Pollin, Hoffman D., etc.) [1; 3; 4; 5; 8].
Elements of the East in Edgar Allan Poe's creativity
Interestingly, the main themes that Edgar Allan Poe had worked on throughout his career are life, death, fear of death, the silence that death brings, and love after death. Anxiety about death is a feeling that is present in every person and is considered to be the basis of all the fears and unknown worries we experience. Thus, while man tries to reconcile with death on the one hand, he seeks immortality on the other. The idea of preserving the physical existence of the deceased in various rites, ceremonies and beliefs is the most obvious manifestation of the desire for immortality. In order to conceal the thought of death and to reduce the fear of death, to adorn and clothe the dead before burying them mainly show a desire for immortality. In the psychological sense, accepting death with courage is considered a prerequisite for a healthy life. It is also known that every individual who is helpless in the face of death is anxious, loses balance and harmony, and has difficulty connecting with the environment. Because facing one's own death, welcoming it with courage, and accepting it are known to be the main psychological processes. From this point of view, since all these psychological conditions are mentioned in the works of Edgar Allan Poe, the problem arises as to where the main source of the subject comes from.
When we have a look at Edgar Allan Poe's career, we see that his first psychological acquaintance with death began with the untimely death of his parents, and this pessimistic mood followed him throughout his life. Perhaps that is why he became interested in solving the mystery of death. His appeal to Eastern culture and literature can be seen in a number of large and small works. In particular, his deep knowledge of the Qur'an, the philosophy of the Oneness of God, and his knowledge of Sufism are reflected at the bottom of all his works. Death, one of the most striking themes in Edgar Allan Poe's work, is synonymous with Maw-lana's concept of death. For this reason, we conclude that he was acquainted with the works of Mawlana Jalaluddin Rumi (1207-1273) and that he had philosophical approaches that benefited from this mystical source [9].
As is known, Mawlana's concept of death is an integral part of his thoughts on God, the universe, man, soul, life and time. The main emphasis in Sufism, based on the verse "He Who created death and life to determine which of you is more beautiful in the first place" (Surah 67 Al-Mulk, ayat 2), is that the Quran interprets death as life [16]. Man, who was brought to the world of beings from non-existence, in the language of the Quran, from "death" in order to test his actions and behavior (Al-Baqarah, ayat 28; An-Nisa, ayat 100; Al-Momin, ayat 11), was created from dust of the ground (Al-Haj, ayat 5; Ar-Rum, ayat 20; Fatir, ayat 11), but carries a piece of God's spirit (Al-Hijr, ayat 29; Sad, ayat 72) [16]
According to Mawlana, the meaning of life, the immortality of the soul and the main way to reach God and perish in him are through death. He divides death
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into "voluntary death" and "natural death". Voluntary death here is an explanation of the Sufi thought of dying before one die. Rumi made the following statement about death: "O soul who escapes from death, you want the truth of the matter, you are not afraid of death, you are afraid of yourself, because it is not the face of death that you fear in the mirror of death, but your ugly face. Your soul is like a tree, and death is like a leaf of that tree. Each leaf depends on the type of tree. That leaf, whether good or bad, is gone from you. Nevertheless, you like it or not, every dream, every thought that comes to your heart comes from you, from your own existence" (Masnavi 3, p. 89) [9].
The definition of death in Sufism is as follows: "It is Allah who kills you and resurrects you" [2, 392]. The whole secret is here. That is, one's self disappears in the self of God and becomes "He". At this point, the contradictions disappear, life and death unite. In fact, death is a transform.
Edgar Allan Poe's major works, which include a mystical worldview - "The Pit and Pendulum", "Al Aaraaf", "Israfel", "The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade", "The Raven", "Annabel Lee", "A Dream Within a Dream", "The Black Cat", "The Fall of the House of Usher" and others are noteworthy in this regard.
Edgar Allan Poe's distinction between "death" and "fear of death" in his story "The Pit and Pendulum" and his quotations from Arabic literature and the Quran are noteworthy. Although the content of the work is not understood at first glance, a careful analysis reveals the hidden curtains behind it.
The event in the story reflects the Inquisition period. In the Middle Ages, the Inquisition courts were courts where the church using the name of religion sentenced people to death, or in other words, were busy of hunting people. These courts judged people who practiced secular practices, such as witchcraft, and subjected them to severe torture. These courts also made their own additions to the rules. Even non-sorcerers were judged at this time for their dissent, branded as witches, burned, and executed.
The protagonist of the story is judged in the Inquisition, hastily arrested and sentenced to death. According to a number of researchers, Edgar Allan Poe's idea of torture, which is not related to a real historical figure, was partially quoted from Juan Antonio Llorente's (1756-1823) "History of the Inquisition of Spain" published in 1817. The well in the story is said to have been influenced by the Quran translated by George Sale. Edgar Allan Poe was closely acquainted with George Sail's creativity and even mentioned him in one of his notes in the story "The Thousand and Second Tale of Scheherazade". He chose to create six subtexts in his work, using notes and explanations from George Sale's translation. One of George Sale's notes included "throwing people into a burning pit" as a way of torture and execution. In Surah Al-Buruj (The Great Star), the 85th surah of the Quran, it is stated that those who persecute believers "sit around a ditch of fire".
At the beginning of the story, an unknown person is judged by some prosecutors for unknown reasons. The writer does not say why the person who narrated
the events was arrested or charged. Due to the words of narrator, seven long candles were burning on the table in front of him, and as the candles melted, the person's hopes for salvation diminished. Let us compare this part of the story with the first ayats of Surah Al-Buruj: "By the heaven having mansions of stars, And by the Promised Day" [16, 907].
Here God is swearing by the sign. God swears by the heavens with their constellations. Edgar Allan Poe replaced this ayat in the story with the mystical figure seven. If the twelve constellations are important for the sustainability of human life for the reasons we have mentioned, then it is important to explain the essence of the number seven. Seven is a metaphysical figure. The number seven is found in both Christianity and Islam. However, in this story, Edgar Allan Poe tries to emphasize the importance of the number seven in medieval Europe. It is stated in the New Testament that Jesus fed a great victory with seven loaves of bread and expelled seven devils from Mary Magdalene. Thus, in medieval Europe, the use of a series of seven numbers was preferred: the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit (represented by pigeons in the Gothic age), the seven angels, the seven virtues, the seven arts and sciences, the seven rites, the seven ages of man, the seven deadly sins, seven wishes in prays of Jesus. The seven churches, the seven horns and the eyes of the lamb, the seven heads of the dragon, and the existence of seven bottles of God's wrath in the book "Sealed with Seals" [15; 28].
Later in the story, the narrator is sentenced to death, and when he regains consciousness, he realizes that he is in a dark place.
When the unconscious narrator regained consciousness, he saw that he was tied to a board with ropes and that the room was poorly lit. A picture of time on the ceiling of the room attracts attention. In the form of a scythe swinging down from this drawing, the clock blade moves slowly back and forth. He realizes that it is impossible to stop the clock, and he sees it slowly descending. Thus, it is clear that this watch was used to kill the scout. However, using a piece of meat set aside for him, the prisoner directs the rats around him towards the rope, and the rats begin to bite the ropes. When the clock blade is a few centimeters above his chest, the ropes break and the blade begins to retreat to the ceiling.
But after a while, the walls of the room become red with heat and begin to move inwards. The man has to go to the pit in the middle of the room. When he looks at the pit, he realizes that nothing will happen to him that will be terrible enough to fall into that well. The work does not say what the explorer saw at the bottom of the pit or was afraid of the depth of the pit. The exact reason for his fear is not disclosed.
It is clear that the pit described in this section was in fact a type of torture used during the Inquisition. It is noteworthy that the author did not disclose what was inside the pit, but noted that it was terrible. In fact, this type of pit, called a hole, was widely used during the Inquisition. The pit with a protruding surface was a death machine that only a man could fit in, and sharp stones would hurt and torture him to death at every turn. A similar trench is mentioned in Surah al-Buruj [16].
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As we can see, Edgar Allan Poe plays the historical reality freely in the story. The rescuers at the end of the story are led by Napoleon's general, Antoine Charles Louis Lassalle (1775-1809). However, Lassalle did not take part in the Peninsula War, which took place hundreds of years after the heyday of the Spanish Inquisition, not during the occupation of Toledo. The methods of torture in the story do not parallel the methods used in any period of the Inquisition. However, the end of the Inquisition took place during the French occupation during 1808-1813.
The story of "The Pit and Pendulum" shows the effect of fear on the narrator. In the first sentence of the story, the investigator states that he was afraid of death by saying, "My condition worsened and I was so bad after a long torment" that the investigator fainted when he heard the death sentence. Such reluctance is ironic for the reader. This is because it is known that a person lived thanks to the words of those who judged the narrator, "they were whiter than the paper I wrote on them" [8; 10]. The main thing that makes the story especially frightening is the lack of natural elements. The place of events in the story is real, not imaginary. Edgar Allan Poe's emphasis on emotion in the story adds to the sense of reality: the dungeon is airless and lightless, the narrator is hungry and thirsty, surrounded by rats, the walls are made of hot metal, and a razor-sharp clock pendulum is about to injure the narrator. The narrator talks about the sound made by the sharp end of the clock pendulum in the form of a "knock". All of this is a description of some of the means of torture used during the Inquisition.
The story was written at a time when the writer was "in a mood of pessimism". In 1842, Edgar Allan Poe resigned from Graham's Magazine. He and his wife also struggled with the disease. His poor health and poverty, he said, "drove him mad somewhere" [17].
Edgar Allan Poe uses a horror story model that he often uses in his horror stories published in "Blackwood's Magazine", and which he also captures in his story, "The Premature Burial". However, the source of the fear in these stories is generally chance or personal revenge.
Edgar Allan Poe is also thought to have been influenced by William Mudford's story "The Iron Shroud" (1830) about a torture chamber in which a victim was crushed by a mechanical device. Edgar Allan Poe took the idea of a shrinking room openly from this story, published in 1830 in "Blackwood's Magazine".
The story of "The Pit and Pendulum" is included in the collection named "The Gift: A Christmas and New Year's Present for 1843" published by Carey & Hart. It was later republished in the May 17, 1845 issue of the "Broadway Journal" with some modifications.
Well-known Irish writer William Butler Yeats was more critical of Edgar Allan Poe. He said for the story "The Pit and Pendulum": "For me, the story has no literary value ... If you study the story of "The Pit and Pendulum" you will find nothing but an attack on the nerves through many elements of physical fear [13, 78]".
Critic L. Moffitt, in his essay "Poe's arabesque" (Comparative literature, 28, 1966), discusses in detail
Poe's extensive use of the Quran and other Arabic sources in his works. According to him, Edgar Allan Poe probably came across this smoke in George Sale's comments by chance: "A man named Du Novas, whose surname is Joseph, constantly persecutes and tortures anyone who does not want to become a Jew, torturing them to death. The most common of these tortures is to throw them into a burning pit; hence the insulting name of the God of the Pit comes from here (New York: Frederick Warne, 1887, p. 17). After writing in this section, George Sale informs his readers that he is referring to the same "pit" in Surah 85 entitled Surah Al-Buruj of the Quran: "Swear by the Promised Day, and by him who testifies and bears witness that the owners of the ditch have been cursed. Those ditches that were set on fire by twigs. ... Indeed, those who afflict believing men and women, and then do not repent, will have the torment of Hell and the torment of burning fire. Has not the story of the hosts come to thee? Of Pharaoh and Thamud? Nay, but those who disbelieve persist in rejecting the truth" (Quran, Surah 85) [16, 907].
Apart from the use of fire in the sense of torture, the comments here are consistent with those of Edgar Allan Poe. Edgar Allan Poe, on the other hand, uses this information about the Day of Judgment as a source in the Bible, as David Hirsch does in "The Pit and the Apocalypse" (Sewanee Review, 76 (1968), 632-652). It is stated in the Quran that he used only the subject of executioners to be punished.
In the epigraph of "Pit and Pendulum" and in the story itself, Edgar Allan Poe refers to the Spanish Inquisitors and the French Jacobins: in the end, both are persecuted. The Inquisitors and Jacobins, like Pharaoh and Thamud, surrendered to the devil. However much they deny it, Edgar Allan Poe himself confirms this in his writings, and his direct reference to the Quran is cited as a source in the poem "Israfel", the long poem "Al-Araaf". He also recalls George Sale's acquaint ance with the book "The Preliminary Discourse to the Koran, 1734", in his story "The Thousand and Second Tales of Scheherazade". It seems that this book, which tended to interpret certain ayats and surahs of the Quran, left a very deep mark on it.
Conclusion. In general, Edgar Allan Poe emphasizes more death and fear in all his stories. Throughout his career, he immersed himself in the depths of human psychology, expressing his scientific knowledge in a codified way in his works. If we look at this aspect from a mystical point of view, we see that Edgar Allan Poe is actually trying to get closer to God by writing horror stories or expressing his love for a dead woman. Because, man is mortal, and love is immortal and it is attached to the spirit. The influence of the spirit is science and understanding. The one who has more knowledge and understanding is the one who is closer to God.
In mystical thought, death is simply the death of the body. Death is like the pain of a birth. Man is in constant contact with everything. Man is the only being who came into contact with death long before death came. Man is equal to death at all times. Because man's structure does not allow him to be disconnected from anything that exists. Life is a whole. Like every birth, every death is life, and every death is part of the new
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birth. In Sufism, death is not separation, but the reunion of the soul with God. Thus, in Sufism, the heart, like the eyes, hands, feet and ears, also remembers Allah. The remembrance of the heart is fear and hope.
Edgar Allan Poe's greatest achievement was his ability to philosophically and aesthetically express the mental, fears, or anxieties that exist in a part of the human mind or beyond. A closer look at Edgar Allan Poe's creativity reveals that he was familiar with Eastern and Western mythology, as well as ancient Eastern history, Sufism, and the Quran. Edgar Allan Poe's story "The Pit and Pendulum" was intended to frighten the reader by combining the power of the story text and its meaning with a kind of hypnotic form. This fear is to convey to the reader that the fear is in fact the cause of the fear and that there is a connection between finding the power to regain that fear.
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