Seminar paper from the year 2015 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,0, University of Duisburg-Essen, language: English, abstract: Poe’s short stories and their impact on the cinema today attract me. Because of that and because of the rising importance of film studies I decided to choose a current film adaptation of Poe’s tales for my work; the mystery-thriller The Raven with John Cusack. Three main aspects of Poe’s short stories are the theme of detection, the theme of insanity and the mood with which he builds up a dreamy semi-reality. So I want to prove the hypothesis that those central elements of Poe’s short stories are still up to date and have a great influence on movies like The Raven. Therefore I will not only use the primary sources of Poe’s short stories and the film The Raven, I will also take into consideration major works by, for instance, G. R. Thompson and Benjamin F. Fisher.