Domestic terror and Poe's Arabesque interior

English Studies in Canada, March, 2005 by Jacob Rama Berman

   Although it was the Arabs who invented the motif and fixed its
   image, Muslim artists of all tongues, Iranians, Turks, Indians,
   and Berbers used the arabesque and provided new variants,
   although these always followed the original spirit. Indeed its
   impact was so strong and persistent that, often, outside elements
   penetrated the range of current forms and it happened
   more than once that they were effortlessly introduced into the
   formal world of the arabesque and integrated in it. At times,
   Western draughtsmen were unable to escape the charm of
   these strange patterns, which for awhile even turned into a
   European fashion. (6)

There are three elements in Kuhnel's description which will be significant to our understanding of the arabesque as it finally appears in Poe--the Arab "original spirit" which defines the arabesque, the form's effortless integration of outside elements, and European fascination with "the charm of these strange patterns." In its original formation the arabesque has two aesthetic necessities, "the rhythmic change of the movements, which should balance themselves harmoniously, and the principle of complete coverage" (Kuhnel 8). It is interesting to note that by the time the arabesque had been re-interpreted by Romantics such as Schlegel it had taken on a chaotic and degenerate meaning that contradicted the harmonious and calming effect the original arabesque design had on the viewer. As Kuhnel writes, "by its balanced and serene convolution the arabesque avoids the dynamic excitement, the restless whirling and violent twisting of the Nordic ornament with which it otherwise has much in common" (The Encyclopedia of Islam 560). Though Kuhnel clearly delineates the arabesque's difference from other similar styles, the change in the affective meaning of the arabesque in Europe was in large part due to the conflation of these other artistic designs into the European understanding of the arabesque, a conflation facilitated by the arabesque's ability to integrate "outside elements" into its "formal world." These outside elements, in the European context, were "primitive" designs that Western travelers had brought back to Europe from Oceania and other locales, designs such as Maori house carvings, South Sea canoe prows, and Easter Island war clubs. Many of the patterns on these relics were considered arabesque, and the fact that they were also considered grotesque and primitive had an effect on the European perception of the arabesque design. Furthermore, though nineteenth century Europeans were fascinated with ornament, they categorized it as a juvenile or degenerate attempt at artistic expression.

Theories on the ornament, on the grotesque, and on the primitive all influenced the Romantic celebration of the arabesque as a counter-aesthetic, a celebration which in turn re-interpreted the original affective function of the arabesque in light of the cultural purchase it had been given in nineteenth century Europe. For while writers such as Schlegel indicate the transportive and liberating properties of the arabesque--its function as conduit to religious experience and the eternal--they nevertheless attach a frenetic aspect to a design originally meant to calm the viewer. This romantic chaos does not emanate from the arabesque object itself, though, but rather ensues from the Western subject cathecting with the Eastern object. This is "a dialectic which has lost one of its sides" (Harvey 6), though it remains for us to decide which one. We must decide whether the reading pleasure of Poe's American audience can be situated in the loss of control of Western subjectivity in the face of the Eastern object or in the very act of controlling the meaning of the Eastern object to make it produce this loss of stable subjectivity.