Edgar Allan Poe worked for a double audience (the popular and the critical), in double tones and manners (grim and mocking, metaphysical and pseudo-scientific). Whether he strove for alternance or interdependence between the terms “grotesque” and “arabesque” which he used to categorize his own narratives, critics such as G. R. Thompson and Dennis Eddings have argued that the former – more visible in tales such as “King Pest,” “Some Words with a Mummy,” “Lionizing,” and “Loss of Breath” -  underscored the carnivalesque, the satirical, and the hoaxical. However, these stories, with humor sometimes found too crass or otherwise too cryptic, are normally cast out of the classroom and textbook anthologies in favor of his tales of psychological terror or ratiocination.

Can Poe’s humor be revived? In our increasingly fearful times, might some of these narratives, or even some his satirical reviews or critical work, help in recalibrating (anti-)democratic conflict, destructive faith in progress, growth, and expansion—or the sensationalist framings of current events and narratives of catastrophe? Or, when Poe’s humor is specially context-bound, can it be used on the contrary to teach hidden (hi)stories of 19th-century American Culture, or human geography? Can his playfulness serve any other curricular or pedagogical purposes?

The PSA will sponsor a panel titled Teaching Poe’s Humor at the upcoming 2025 American Literature Association Conference in Boston (May 21-24). We now seek proposals that explore the abovementioned aspects or other topics on how to address Poe’s humor in the classroom or in broader educational contexts. To submit a proposal, please send a title and abstract of no more than 250 words to Margarida Vale de Gato at margaridagato@edu.ulisboa.pt Please use “PSA ALA Panel 2025” for the subject line. This panel is “in-person” only. The deadline for submissions is January 10, 2025. Panelists will be notified by January 15, 2025.