Edgar Allan Poe and his writing are being subjected to intensive critical scrutiny by champions of post-modernist theory in the US today. His name is frequently invoked among the contemporary American fiction writers on account of the current vogue of the short story in the US. The present times, with emphasis upon "minimalism," are more suitable for the short story than the novel. Mystery, vividness, intensity, and brevity emphasized so much by Poe as the important feature of the tale, are today the qualities for the special attraction of the short story. 
Poe, known as the father of the short story in English, laid great stress on the " wide diversity and variety " of theme and technique in his tales. His writing is so complex and diverse that it is difficult to place it in any single mould. The variety of his themes and fictional techniques are analyzed in Explorations in Poe in some detail in eleven papers either specially written for the book, or recently presented at national seminars and conference on American literature in India, or originally published in the US. Thus the technique of the detective story in the analysis of "Thou Art the Man," of the comic tales in the article entitled " Explorations in the World of Comedy, " and the author's failure in longer fiction in the article on PYM are considered. The thematic variety dealt with in the book includes the affinities of Eureka with Hindu Philosophy, the Gothic in " Ligeia" Women in Poe's writings, his treatment of the Negros and the Indian, his essential humanism, and his concern for popular writing of his times that brings him close to popular culture studies today, including the works of Stephen E. King. The contemporary interest in Poe extends into the 1990s and beyond, thus marking the perennial significance of his writings for the serious scholar as well as the common reader.