The peculiarity of literature

This book argues that Edgar Allan Poe's fiction, and literature in general, is ultimately peculiar - that is, it remains outside the jurisdiction of any critical gaze. Unfortunately, most critical readings of Poe ignore this resistance to interpretation and work to incorporate his fiction as examples or illustrations of theories and concepts that have little or nothing to do with language and writing.

If literature is to survive as literature, it must be freed from its subjugation to other disciplines, other concerns, and other projects. If Poe's fiction is to survive in any meaningful way, it must be liberated from the critical tradition that sees nothing in it but confirmation of its own theories.

Author Jeffrey DeShell contends in this book that paradoxically Poe's fiction becomes much more influential, subversive, important, and meaningful, if it is allowed to remain in that space without influence, communication, and meaning.