Abstract:

In 2015, M. Rigal (Prof. Dr. of Literature in English Language) and F. González (Prof. Dr. of History of Art) established the interdisciplinary and research group “LyA” (Literature and Art) of the UCLM. One of the main aims of this group is to study the relationship between text and image in illustrated editions as a fundamental tool to teach Literature. In 2016, we were granted by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad for the development of a four-year research project (“Poe On-line: Text and Image”) to create teaching resources of high quality based on the works of Edgar A. Poe.

Objectives:
Our main goal was to give a wider recognition to the different facets of Poe’s life and production (crime fiction, science fiction…). In order to achieve that, we decided to design a four-year program of exhibits developed by our own students.The target audience of the exhibits is composed by members of the alumni, the faculty, and the general public of the city. Besides, local high-school students were encouraged to visit the exhibitions as a complement of their regulated formation.

Methodology:
Our students of “Museology and Museography” of the Grado de Humanidades y Estudios Sociales (Facultad de Humanidades, Albacete, UCLM) were in charge of the design, development, and construction of all the elements that take part in an exhibit. Furthermore, all the textual materials of the exhibit prepared by the students (panels, placards, leaflets…) were bilingual as part of the project of teaching innovation developed at our College.

Results:
This work has allowed our students to learn how to design an exhibit in the most practical way, and they have also had the possibility of working with valuable real materials. As part of our project, we have collected almost a hundred of illustrated editions of Poe’s works: editions that cover a complete graphic history of the works of this North-American writer. Our students have learnt how to process the loan, how to handle, and how to exhibit this kind of valuable and fragile materials, as well as the conditions to preserve them. The results of such a hard work can be visualized in the following links:
• Lo Grotesco: De El Bosco a Edgar A. Poe (2015/16)
This exhibition culminated with two masterful exponents: Francisco de Goya and Edgar A. Poe, whose works represent a milestone in the history of the grotesque for art and literature.
http://humanidadesab.uclm.es/actividades/2016/07/15/exposicion-lo-grotesco/
• Unveiling Poe. Desvelando a Edgar A. Poe (2016/17)
The intention of this exhibition was to show the life and works of Edgar Allan Poe avoiding the topics and emphasizing his work as a whole, as well as its influence.
http://humanidadesab.uclm.es/actividades/2017/05/19/unveiling-poe/
• Dupin VS. Holmes. El origen de la novela de detectives (2017/18)
This exhibition aimed to explore the relationship between Poe’s Dupin and Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, showing what they have in common and what makes them different.
http://humanidadesab.uclm.es/actividades/2018/05/16/dupin-vs-holmes/
• The Amazing Poe: pionero de la literatura de ciencia ficción (2018/19)
This exhibition aimed to bring the visitor closer to the origins of science fiction and to those texts in which the USA writer explores the relationship between science and literary fiction.
http://humanidadesab.uclm.es/actividades/2019/05/08/the-amazing-poe-pionero-de-la-literatura-de-ciencia-ficcion/

Keywords:

Poe, Exhibit, Teaching Innovation, Research, Illustrated Editions.