TEACHING AND RESEARCHING EDGAR A. POE:

Abstract

In 2015, M. Rigal (Prof. Dr. of Literature in English Language) and F. González (Prof. Dr. of History of Art) established the interdisciplinary and research group “LyA” (Literature and Art) of the UCLM. One of the main aims of this group is to study the relationship between text and image in illustrated editions as a fundamental tool to teach Literature. In 2016, we were granted by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad for the development of a four-year research project (“Poe On-line: Text and Image”) to create teaching resources of high quality based on the works of Edgar A. Poe. To achieve such a goal, we decided to design a four-year program of exhibits directly developed by the students of “Museology and Museography” of the Grado de Humanidades y Estudios Sociales (Facultad de Humanidades in Albacete, UCLM). Our students were in charge of the design, development and construction of all the elements that take part in an exhibit. Furthermore, all the textual materials of the exhibit prepared by the students (panels, placards, leaflets…) were bilingual as part of the project of teaching innovation developed at our Faculty. This work has allowed our students to learn how to design an exhibit in the most practical way, and they have also had the possibility of working with valuable real materials. They have learnt how to process the loan, how to handle, and how to exhibit this kind of valuable and fragile items, as well as the conditions to preserve them. The four exhibits that have conformed this tetralogy have been: - Lo Grotesco: De El Bosco a Edgar A. Poe (2015/16) - Unveiling Poe. Desvelando a Edgar A. Poe (2016/17) - Dupin VS. Holmes. El origen de la novela de detectives (2017/18) - The Amazing Poe: pionero de la literatura de ciencia ficción (2018/19)