The Artistic Interpretation and Poetic Features of the Image of the East in Nineteenth-Century American Romanticism: A Study of Edgar Allan Poe and Washington Irving

This article examines the poetic construction of the image of the East in nineteenth-century American Romantic literature through a comparative study of Edgar Allan Poe and Washington Irving. It aims to identify the aesthetic functions of Eastern settings, symbolic imagery, fantastic representation, historical memory, and narrative strategies. The primary corpus includes Poe’s “Al Aaraaf,” “Israfel,” and “The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade,” alongside Irving’s Tales of the Alhambra and A Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada. Comparative-typological, poetic, intertextual, and narratological methods are employed. The analysis suggests that Poe largely constructs the East through metaphysical and ironic aesthetic models, while Irving represents it through historical-geographical and legendary spaces. The East is understood not as a fixed stereotype but as a literary construction performing diverse poetic functions.