The occultist background of the raven: From its poetic symbolism to the modernist "topoi"

  • Dolores Romero López Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Keywords: Symbol, Reason, Symbolism, Modernism, EdgarAlan Poe, Rubén Darío, LatinAmerican and SpanishModernists.

Abstract

The anthropological and religious interest for the raven is present in Buddhism, in biblical stories, in North and Greek mythologies, in Arthurian legend and in Spanish epic. The occultism attributed to the raven the mission of guidance of dead human souls after death. This article tracks how the raven transfers its occult connotations to the poetic symbol analyzing the poem«The Raven» by EdgarAlan Poe in its cultural and aesthetic context. Charles Baudelaire and the French symbolists dignified the intertextual evolution of Poe’s symbol and transferred it to LatinAmerican and Spanish modernists. These poets used the raven not only as a symbol but mainly as a recurrent motif or poetic topos. Even though the occultist influence appears ‘scattered’ in the process of the creative experience of this symbol, it does not take away its existence. The occultist influence of the raven explains the ultimatemeaning of some verses and clarifies the exceptions and contradictions that appear in many poems.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Crossmark

Metrics

Published
2013-09-26
How to Cite
Romero López D. (2013). The occultist background of the raven: From its poetic symbolism to the modernist "topoi". ’Ilu. Revista de Ciencias de las Religiones, 18, 201-218. https://doi.org/10.5209/rev_ILUR.2013.v18.43048
Section
Articles