Date of Award

5-2008

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Legacy Department

English

Committee Chair/Advisor

Field, Jonathan

Committee Member

Ashton , Susanna

Committee Member

Paul , Catherine

Committee Member

Ramirez , Barbara

Abstract

This master's thesis analyzes four of Poe's short stories--'The Pit and the Pendulum,' 'The Tell-Tale Heart,' 'Metzengerstein,' and 'The Purloined Letter'-in comparison with their respective radio adaptations. Using the texts and Poe's essay 'The Philosophy of Composition' as guides for comparison, it is apparent that the respective changes made in each radio play veer greatly from Poe's original stories. Although the radio adaptations leave behind some traces of Poe's signature technique, they mostly remove that which was deemed too scary, too dark, or too overly philosophical for radio audiences. Therefore, the stories become at once comforting and disarming, at once familiar and foreign. The listener is thereby presented with a paradoxical view of Poe, as the radio plays curiously turn the original author into a figure who is simultaneously 'Poe and not Poe.'

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