“Bloodthirsty and Remorseless Fangs”: Representation of East-Central Europe in Edgar Allan Poe’s Gothic Short Stories

Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to analyse the representation of East-Central Europe in Edgar Allan Poe’s prose, created half a century before the transformation of “the land beyond the forest” into the home of the terrifying Count Dracula. Poe’s imagined Hungary reflects some themes or motifs typical for the cultural representation of 19th century North America, such as the horse, the fight for territory or the revenge. Metzengerstein has terror accents gradually increasing and intensely exploited in the end, and several elements anticipate Stoker’s gothic Transylvania. On the other hand, East-Central Europe is represented as a center of progress in technology, the place where innovations by some remarkable inventors of the time, such as von Kempelen and Maelzel, were developed.