I want to inform everyone about my involvement with The Poe Studies Association's Fourth International Edgar Allan Poe Conference. I served as Chair for a session entitled "Aesthetics and Philosophy" which took place in the East End room of The Roosevelt Hotel in New York City, NY on Saturday, February 28, 2015 (check out pages 17 and 18 at http://www2.lv.psu.edu/psa/Conference2015/EAP_CONF_PROGRAM_2015.pdf). Independent scholar Meredith Kahn presented her paper "Poe's 'Philosophy of Furniture': A Tangible Embodiment of Aristotelian Philosophy," Chantal Chien-hui Hsu of The National Chengchi University of Taiwan presented her paper "A Kantian Reinterpretation: Supernal Beauty in Edgar Poe's 'Ligeia'," and Sidney Thompson of The University of North Texas presented his paper "Edgar Allan Poe: The Negative Transcendentalist." The entire conference took place between Thursday, February 26 - Sunday, March 1, 2015. In Kahn's presentation we see where Poe complains that Glitter is confounded with magnificence in American society both in the 19th century as well as the 21st. During the Q & A portion of the session, I was able to direct Chantal Chien-hui Hsu to the work of Lina Papadaki who recently synthesized Immanuel Kant's work with that of contemporary feminist theorists Catharine McKinnon, Andrea Dworkin, and Martha Nussbaum to arrive at a definition of objectification as the denial of another's humanity. Similar to Thoreau's observations of Walden, Pym, in Poe's "A Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket," records the islands they visit. He even undergoes a transformation that is aided by nature yet marked by the acquisition of knowledge beyond man's natural circumstances (i.e., through intuition). When I pointed out this "anomaly" in Poe's oeuvre, Thompson conceded that it did indeed show signs of being an instance of "positive" Transcendentalism in the work of Poe whom he had characterized as a "negative transcendentalist." For example, Poe, in "Eureka," exalts intuition (a Kantian transcendental form according to Ralph Waldo Emerson) as higher than any philosophy. In an earlier session, my friend and colleague, poet, and Instructor of English at Guilford Technical Community College Dr. Jason W. Johnson delivered his presentation "Poe and the Poetics of Prose: Prose Rhythm in the Short Fiction" in which he argued the controversial notion that Poe's short fiction is made entirely of prose poems. As you can see, The Poe Studies Association's Fourth International Edgar Allan Poe Conference was a powerful gathering of scholars, highlighting one of the most famous and best-loved American writers whose influence still inspires the arts throughout the world.
Taking a Look at Edgar Allan Poe
ZANE GILLESPIE
After six years as Minister of Music at Mount Pleasant United Methodist Church (UMC) in Holly Springs, MS, I was recently called to continue to work to address public engagement in music participation as Director of Music Ministries at First UMC in Water Valley, MS. I am a Composer, Theorist, and member of both The College Music Society as well as The Poe Studies Association (PSA). I am also an active pianist and vocalist, specializing primarily in church music. My paper entitled ““Mesmeric Revelation”: Art as Hypnosis” has been published by the international, peer-reviewed journal Humanities. In addition, another paper of mine entitled “A Model of Triadic Post-Tonality for a Neoconservative Postmodern String Quartet by Sky Macklay” has been submitted to the peer-reviewed Music Theory journal Perspectives of New Music. At the end of February 2015, I served as Chair for the session entitled “Aesthetics and Philosophy” at The Fourth International PSA Conference in New York City. On June 21, 2014, my Quartet for Alto Saxophone and Strings, a commission from concert saxophonist Walter Hoehn, was performed as part of Concert V of the Eighth Annual Belvedere Chamber Music Festival held at Grace-St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Memphis, TN. Characteristically neo-romantic (in the original sense of the word), my music earned me the Nancy Van de Vate Award for Composition three times from the University of Mississippi Department of Music. A native of Pontotoc, MS, I hold degrees from the University of Mississippi (BM; MM), and the University of Memphis (DMA) where I was the 2011 recipient of the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music's Smit Composition Award. I live in Memphis, TN.