Božanski otkucaji srca: teologija i kosmogonija Edgara Alana Poa

Abstract

Using the basic cosmological hypotheses that Edgar Allan Poe put forth in his work Eureka: A Prose Poem as the starting point of the analysis, the paper primarily explores Poe’s understanding of Divine Principle’s role in the origin, development and subsequent collapse of the Universe. In the context of the paper, the aforementioned work is viewed as a nineteenth century philosophical and literary anticipation of the following contemporary scientific theories concerning the origin and behavior of the Universe: law of attraction, chaos, entropy and Big Bang theories. By comparative interpretation of Poe’s cosmological theory and Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, the paper offers an attempt of establishing parallels that exist on the two following planes: individual particle of matter – totality of Cosmos and human individual – God.