[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-597782-105":59,"doc-detail-597782-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":123,"head_meta":125,"extra_data":127,"updated_unix":129},105,"en","agonizing-poe-michael-j-kiskis","AGONIZING POE - Michael J. Kiskis","","“Agonizing Poe” by Michael J. Kiskis reflects on teaching Edgar Allan Poe to students who arrive with intense expectations. The author describes how he is an outsider to Poe studies, yet has become compelled by the emotional impact of Poe on readers and students. He outlines a week-long course unit built around major works, examines why students are drawn to Poe’s gothic horror, and considers the role of fear, fascination, and emotional instability in making Poe powerful.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":15,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/literature/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/agonizing-poe-michael-j-kiskis/597782/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/agonizing-poe-michael-j-kiskis/597782.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"SANS","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-21","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":8},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"Why does Michael J. Kiskis say he agonizes when facing students and their expectations of Poe?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"He reacts strongly and with unease because his critical stance toward Poe has been shaped by students who are unusually awed and enthusiastic about Poe.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"How does Kiskis structure his week-long class on Poe?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"He teaches Poe over one full week in the American literature survey, devoting separate classes to “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “Ligeia” with related poems, and additional works including “The Raven” and “The Philosophy of Composition.”",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What reasons does Kiskis give for students being drawn to Poe’s work?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"He discusses that students often come wanting only Poe, drawn to offbeat horror and gothic intensity, influenced by earlier school introductions and also by a desire to be scared and entertained.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},597782,1792612460,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":14,"category_name":15,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":8,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":19,"language":139,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":143,"read_time":29},962090760505,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_155a257f0dc6eb9ab79c44ca47cae57d","The CEA Forum  \nWinter/Spring 2006: 35.1  \nAGONIZING POE  \nMichael J. Kiskis  \nI like a look of Agony,  \nBecause I know it's true –  \nMen do no sham Convulsion,  \nNor simulate, a Throe –  \nThe eyes glaze once – and that is Death –  \nImpossible to feign  \nThe Beads opon the Forehead By homely Anguish strung.  \n~ Emily Dickinson, \\#339  \nI begin with a disclaimer: I am not a Poe scholar (which may become evident before too long) . My specialty is Mark Twain. I began thinking seriously about Poe when I was invited to participate in a panel discussion on teaching Poe in the American survey course [1]  . I was invited as an outsider to Poe studies and to provide an outsider's perspective – a voice from the hinterlands, if you will. I have become more aware of my critical stance toward Poe as I have faced students who are overwhelmingly awed by and enthusiastic readers of Poe's writings. I have become more drawn to the difficulties I have in reading Poe as I have worked to detail the compelling relationship between reading and emotion in my work on Twain. Elsewhere, I have written about the clash between so-called “objective” reading and emotional response in Twain [2]  . Here I would like to consider why I react strongly and with a good deal of unsteadiness to Poe, in short why I agonize when I face students  \nand their expectations of Poe.  \nI teach Edgar Allan Poe over one full week each fall in the first part of the American literature survey (proportionally, that means he gets 1/12 of the time in the course) . We usually devote a full class to “The Fall of the House of Usher,” a second class to “Ligeia” with the poems “The Sleeper” and “Annabel Lee,” and a third class to ”Sonnet – To Science,”“The Raven,” and “The Philosophy of Composition.” It's a cross section. Certainly not fully representative. But this gives students a taste and, I hope, offers various opportunities for discussion.  \nMy students would be much happier – gleeful, I think – if I skipped the colonial and early national period and moved directly to the nineteenth century writers. No. That's not exactly true. Many of my students want Poe. Only Poe. All Poe. They can't wait to get to him. They embrace him as a contemporary. They like the offbeat horror and the gothic intensity. My students are often impatient as we work our way through the early colonial writings. The Puritans bore them, which seems odd to me because I find so much of a Puritan anxiety over individual damnation so prevalent in Poe's writing. Some students reach out to embrace Ann Bradstreet; I have found that students aiming at careers in nursing are sometimes drawn to Mary Rowlandson's symptoms of posttraumatic stress. But seventeenth and early eighteenth century notions of sin, and the impulse to lay prostrate before a justifiably angry God, seem to quash general student enthusiasm. Though students will not tend to Hawthorne's or Dickinson's or Melville's complex mix of profane and sacred, they do pay close attention to Poe's gothic. But why?  \nDuring the past year I had conversations with students who positively bubbled at the prospect of Poe; two young women were upset because I told the class that Poe was not my favorite author. They asked me not to let my own bias interfere with the class discussion and their enjoyment. That's how much they care. In an institution that suffers not a little from student timidity, these students were not only talking but asking forcefully that I acknowledge and honor their literary interests. I can't tell you how rare that is.  \nBut let's get back to why they feel aligned with Poe.  \nA friend has told me about her experience reading “The Pit and the Pendulum” to her young (about ten years old) son. She told me that as she read his eyes grew saucer size. He pleaded with her to keep reading even though he was deeply frightened, even though he knew that she knew he was frightened. He loved the story. He loved what it did to him. For him, Poe's pit was a dark clo","cbCaigwStyuIt0am","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaigwStyuIt0am","pdf",27952,"English","# Agonizing Poe\n## Poe as an outsider’s perspective\n## Course structure and selected texts\n## Why students feel aligned with Poe","[{\"question\":\"Why does Michael J. Kiskis say he agonizes when facing students and their expectations of Poe?\",\"answer\":\"He reacts strongly and with unease because his critical stance toward Poe has been shaped by students who are unusually awed and enthusiastic about Poe.\"},{\"question\":\"How does Kiskis structure his week-long class on Poe?\",\"answer\":\"He teaches Poe over one full week in the American literature survey, devoting separate classes to “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “Ligeia” with related poems, and additional works including “The Raven” and “The Philosophy of Composition.”\"},{\"question\":\"What reasons does Kiskis give for students being drawn to Poe’s work?\",\"answer\":\"He discusses that students often come wanting only Poe, drawn to offbeat horror and gothic intensity, influenced by earlier school introductions and also by a desire to be scared and entertained.\"}]","AGONIZING POE - Michael J. Kiskis | PDF",1792085691]