Episode 2 (with Kelly Ross)

In our second episode, I talk to Kelly Ross, Associate Professor at Rider University, about Poe and her critical triangulation of slavery, surveillance, and detective fiction, as detailed in her recent book, Slavery, Surveillance, and Genre in Antebellum United States Literature (Oxford UP, 2023). Over the course of our conversation, we discuss the origins of her book (1:12); modes of detection (2:33); genre (9:02); the second chapter of her book, which comparatively analyzes The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym and Charles Ball’s Slavery in the United States (11:04); Poe’s Dupin stories (22:00); “Hop-Frog” (29:58); her advice to researchers and writers (32:20); connections between antebellum period and today (35:11); and recent trends in Poe scholarship (38:40). --Caleb Doan, host of POEcast