The singer in the darkness:On the modernity in the short fictions of Allan Poe
        In this thesis，modernity is a category of culture and aesthetics，referring to the aesthetic modernity posited by the 20th century modernists in culture and art. Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) is one of the most significant American poets, novelist and literature critics, whose greatest achievement lies in his short stories. His novels are full of horror, mystery and romance, so Poe is regarded as the progenitor of both the symbolic literature and psychological analysis novels. Poe's short stories include reasoning, detective fiction and horror thriller, which work mainly on the theme of death, describing plots from the first-person narrative point of view, focusing on analysis of the inner world of characters, expressing the profound insights on life. Allan Poe’s favor towards the subject of death has something to do with his unique creation theory – the theory of “Effect”. Allan Poe's short stories and creation theory set up a model and guideline for the main schools of the modernism, such as the aestheticism in England and the symbolism in France. Poe uses the techniques of expression which are common among the modernists, creating the typical alone and isolated images of characters. The wilderness theme, which is usually found in the modern novels, also is embodied in his short fictions. He developed his works characterizing “from fun to ridicule, from scare to horrification, from wit to irony, from specialty to mystery.” By studying Poe’s horror fiction under the category of modernity and the comparison between Poe’s short fictions and modern novels on the narrative techniques, aesthetic ideas and the themes, we can have a better understanding of Poe’s artistic innovation and prominence.
        The thesis is divided into three parts: introduction, body and conclusion. The first chapter of body is set out from Allan Poe’s creation theory, to investigate the modernity of his consciousness of creation. The second chapter is designed to discuss the modernity of text in Poe’s works from the form of narration, focusing on the analysis of the pioneering first-person narrative perspective, the breakthrough of the traditional narrative time and space, and the use of art images. The third chapter lays stress on the theme of death, revealing Poe’s deep sentiments of life from the three typical subjects, namely the death of horror, the death of grotesquery and the transcendence over death. The last part pays attention to another feature of the themes of Poe’s fictions - Poe foretells the spiritual nightmares of the modern people in the 20th century. The isolated spiritual predicament, ignorant self-salvation, and the eventual relief of death, the three topics will be analyzed in this chapter. The paper is to discuss the artistic innovation of Poe from the four aspects mentioned above, so that to make a further exploitation towards the modernity in his short fictions.

Key words: Modernity, Consciousness of Creation, Unconventional themes and narration, Prophecy