Poe: Father of the Detective Story, A WebQuest

Introduction

Edgar Allen Poe is known as a master of the macabre. He wrote many literary works that dealt with death, from poems lamenting to loss of a love to short stories about murders. Poe is considered the father of the English language Detective Genre of fiction, a genre that is still popular. Today, you are the detective, and your case is to analyze the Detective Story Genre. Read on to learn some background on the case, and then proceed to the Task.

In the 1830s and 1840s, Poe had many ups and downs as he became a popular writer, yet often struggled financially. In his short life, he was a soldier, journalist, literary critic and poet in addition to short story author. He also experienced many personal tragedies before his mysterious death at age of 40. It is ironic that the father of the detective story's death has become an unsolved mystery. What are the essential components of Poe's detective stories? Are these stories still appealing today? What has made the detective genre popular over the past two centuries? Keep these questions in mind as we analyze the case of the detective genre.

Pennsylvania Department of Education Standard for 11th Grade:
PDE Standard: Anchor Descriptor - R11.A.1.6: Identify, describe, and analyze genre of text.
R11.A.1.6.1: Identify and/or analyze the author's intended purpose of text.
R11.A.1.6.2: Explain, describe, and/or analyze examples of text that support the author's intended purpose.

Follow these Case and Quest links below to begin.

Task
Process
Evaluation
Conclusion

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