A chronotopic and topoanalytic analysis of Edgar Allan Poe's detective stories

Based on the 19th century modernisation that encompassed cities and societies and caused radical changes in individuals' living spaces and daily practices, this study aims to read the spaces in Edgar Allan Poe's detective stories within the framework of chronotopic and topoanalytical approaches. The thesis, which proceeds in a line extending from the urban scale to the dwelling and the object, discusses the determining role of time on spaces and the perceptual dimension of space that transcends physical boundaries. The thesis is analysed under three main headings, the first of which is the chapter titled "City-Dwelling-Object", which provides a comprehensive overview of the atmosphere of the 19th century. In cities, which became the centre of modern life with industrialisation, the struggle of modern individuals, driven by the desire to change the world and themselves, with the sense of alienation is addressed. In this age of change, which feeds the feelings of "boredom" and "restlessness", the emphasis is on the urban actors that emerge in the crowded streets with the increase in people experiencing the city. The characters of bohemian, dandy and flaneur shaped by modernity are highlighted, and Poe's story "The Man of the Crowds", which is considered the ancestor of the detective figure and takes the reader through the streets of the modern city reflecting the spirit of the age in pursuit of the character, is analysed. The separation of spaces into private and public as a result of modernisation and the fact that individuals spend a significant part of their time away from the crowds of the city in their homes, which represent peace and security, are mentioned. At the same time, the poetic and imaginary dimension of interiors established with dreams, memories, thoughts and experiences is explored, the revelation of what is suppressed and hidden inside the dwelling and the visibility of the private are discussed through the uncanny. Spaces have become personalised and turned into places reflecting the traces of the individual. Based on the fact that houses are filled with a variety of items, the study focuses on objects. The arrangement, placement and coming together of the objects were investigated, and the bond between the objects, which are the projection of memories and experiences, and the inhabitant of the house was focused on. The second chapter, "The Birth of Detective Fiction and Crime Spaces", which connect time-space studies to Poe's stories, highlights the reasons for the emergence of detective stories and the relationship between the theme of crime in these stories and the city, space and object. Factors such as urbanisation, the emergence of the surveillance gaze, the rise of criminology, the modernisation of forensic medicine, the invention of photography and physiognomic analyses are discussed in order to examine the birth of the genre pioneered by Poe. Crimes committed in the dangerous and restless streets and nooks and crannies of crowded and growing metropolises are identified with detective stories. The reasons why crimes, which are not only limited to the outside but also spread to the interiors, take place in detective stories are investigated, and the relationship of dwellings with the uncanny is touched upon. It is also included in the study that the uncanny is a fundamental concept that defines the spaces in Poe's fictional narratives. The effect of the position and placement of furniture and objects on the transformation of interiors into crime scenes was emphasised, and the role of objects in determining the atmosphere of the space was shown through photographs taken in similar periods. In connection with all these, Poe's article titled The Philosophy of Furniture, in which he examines space and objects with critical, cynical, didactic and fictional sections on the basis of topics such as furniture arrangement, geometry of the room, curtains, glass, glitter, gloss, glare, was analysed. In the last section titled "Analysis of Detective Stories in Parallel to the Concepts of Chronotope and Topoanalysis", chronotopic and toponological analyses were made on the city, space, objects and characters in the texts in the focus of Poe's The Mystery of Marie Rogêt, Murder in the Rue Morgue and The Purloined Letter trilogy. In this context, firstly, the concept of chronotope proposed by Bakhtin for literary narratives, which underlines that time cannot be understood without a spatial dimension, is discussed. Then Bachelard's method of topoanalysis, which is based on the poetics of objects and space and analyses place and space by focusing on experiences, emotions, memories and poetic images, is examined. In the stories set in Paris and referring to the history of the period in which they were written, the unity of time and space is questioned, and the effects of the period on the city, housing and objects are analysed. In the study where the space is also studied from an imaginary point of view, the relationships between the objects themselves, with the space and with the characters are evaluated. Poe's detective stories reflect the urban, spatial and cultural codes of the period, and the relationship of the spaces described in the texts with dreams and emotions has been analysed. Readings were made from the perspectives of time-space and perception at the intersection of literature and architecture.