New Dimensions in Conceptualizing Beauty and the Principle of Originality in the Works of Edgar Allan Poe and Charles Baudelaire

The article is a comparative critical study of select works by Edgar Allan Poe and Charles Baudelaire, the former considered as a sui generis precursor of modernism in the American context and often referred to as “a one-man modernist”, the latter – an outstanding figure whose avant-garde philosophy and writings earned him the title “father of modern criticism” in the European discourse. Irrespective of the fact that their lives and work diverged not only chronologically, but also in terms of their geographical, historical and cultural specificities, I will nevertheless attempt to deduce a concept of what I call “similar typological schemes and perceptions” which they employed to build up their poetry and prose. The writings which I have chosen are, in my view, emblematic of their work and best demonstrate the exquisite quality of their rare sensibilities, which might be said to exist in their own right