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History of English American Literature
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Use of gothic in american literature essay
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Recommended: History of English American Literature
Washington Irving
Diedrich Knickerbocker; Geoffrey Crayon; Henry A. Buchanan; Jonathan Oldstyle. All were famous writers of the nineteenth century. All had one important thing in common-they are all one man-Washington Irving. Using these pen names, among many, Irving developed a legacy of utilizing European culture to cultivate American aspects of literature.
Fred Lewis Pattee asserted, "American short story began in 1819 wit Washington Irving." (Gale Group 4) Irving is best known for his fictional works. These pieces include the popular "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", "Rip Van Winkle", and "The Devil and Tom Walker". Each of these works left a mark on American fictional literature. "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", from The Sketch Book by (pen name) Geoffrey Crayon. This story was turned into an operetta by Douglas Moore, entitled "The Headless Horseman". Also, it was revived as a Disney animated film "The Adventures of Ichabold and Mr. Toad", as well as the 1999 version of the short story, Tim Burton's "Sleepy Hollow" (starring Christina Ricci and Johnny Depp). (Oldstyle 4)
Each of these accomplishments were not only Irving's or the film industry's, but to the benefit of American journalism with the use of European influence. As a young man of a fresh nineteenth century, Irving traveled most of the time in Europe. He served as secretary of the United States legation in London, England in 1829, minister to Spain from 1843 to 1846, and lived to serve a number of years experiencing European life and expressing it through his work. (Oldstyle 2) In "Rip Van Winkle", Irving skillfully manipulates the reader. It seems that the character Rip is a poor provider, but Irving carefully turns the dislike to the wife. Tho...
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...ided to write a similar theme to Irving. This caused Irving to abandon this idea and look elsewhere for ideas. (Oldstyle 2)
Returning to his home after three more years in Spain, Irving spent his time (of course) around his literature. He became the President of New York Public Library and later published his five-volume The Life of George Washington (to whom he was named after). Irving died quietly in Tarrytown on November 28, 1859 in his sleep.
His works will be remembered and celebrated, as they are, for long after even we are gone. His experiences in Europe have helped shape American literature in both non-fictional and fictional senses.
"There rise authors now and then, who seem proof against the mutability of language, because they have rooted themselves in the unchanging principles of human nature." (from The Mutabilities of Literature)(Oldstyle 3)
The story, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, was written by Washington Irving, and the story is about a man name Ichabod Crane who was trying to win Katherina Van Tassel’s hand in marriage, but he is failing. The small town named Sleepy Hollow has a folklore about the Headless Horseman, who rides through the town at night to find his head. Irving explains that Sleepy Hollow has many ghost stories, but the Headless Horseman is the most popular in the town. Ichabod Crane was a school master, and he was killed by the town’s ghost. The townspeople believed Crane was taken by the Galloping Hessian, so the story of the Headless Horseman would not be associated with Crane’s disappearance. As the news about Ichabod’s disappearance rummage through the town, the Brom Bones’ reaction to the news made people question the Galloping Hessian’s part
In Washington Irving’s “Rip Van Winkle,” an allegorical reading can be seen. The genius of Irving shines through, in not only his representation in the story, but also in his ability to represent both sides of the hot political issues of the day. Because it was written during the revolutionary times, Irving had to cater to a mixed audience of Colonists and Tories. The reader’s political interest, whether British or Colonial, is mutually represented allegorically in “Rip Van Winkle,” depending on who is reading it. Irving uses Rip, Dame, and his setting to relate these allegorical images on both sides. Irving would achieve success in both England and America, in large part because his political satires had individual allegorical meanings.
?The Legend of Sleepy Hollow? is a short story by Washington Irving. Based on a well-known legend, this story tells the tale of the disappearance of the main character, Ichabod Crane. An effective ghost story, Irving leaves you guessing what the truth is behind the ending. The movie Sleepy Hollow is Hollywood?s portrayal of Irving?s original story. Although the movie is similar to the story in the beginning, the movie takes a twist that leads in another direction that strays far from the original plot.
Over time the language of the original text of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Irving has been reworked to accommodate the change in audience. The Heath Anthology of American Literature has an unabridged version of the original wording (1354-1373). A complete copy of the original text of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" can be found in the young adolescent classic section of a bookstore or the juvenile section in the library. A juvenile edition of the text adapted by Arthur Rackham from 1928 was a replicate of the original it is filled with seven colored illustrations and numerous sketching. A young adolescent version adapted by Bryan Brown from 2001 has been abridged to accommodate the current young reader. The format is changed in Brownâs edition. The yo...
The Romantic era writers, Washington Irving and Edgar Allan Poe, had many similarities but even more differences, in both writing theme and style. This is very evident in their works, “Rip Van Winkle”, by Irving, and “The Fall of the House of Usher”, by Poe.
When a writer starts his work, most often than not, they think of ways they can catch their reader’s attention, but more importantly, how to awake emotions within them. They want to stand out from the rest and to do so, they must swim against the social trend that marks a specific society. That will make them significant; the way they write, how they make a reader feel, the specific way they write, and the devotion they have for their work. Washington Irving, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Edgard Allan Poe influenced significantly the American literary canon with their styles, themes, and forms, making them three important writers in America.
Irving Washington. "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Nina Baym. 5th ed. Vol. 1. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1998. 948-69.
Washington Irving wrote Rip Van Winkle with the American people in mind. At this time society was changing drastically. America was attempting to go through a struggle with forming their own identity. America was wanting to have an identity that would set them free from English culture and rule. Irving uses his main character, Rip Van Winkle, to symbolize America. Rip goes through the same struggles that America was going through at this time before and after the Revolution. Irving uses such great symbolism in this story to describe the changes that American society went through. This story covers a wide variety of time periods including: America before English rule, early American colonies under English rule, and America after the Revolutionary War.
Washington Irving’s short story, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” was adapted into a movie titled “Sleepy Hollow” directed by Tim Burton nearly two centuries after the original publication. When the story was adapted as a film, several extensive changes were made. A short story easily read in one sitting was turned into a nearly two-hour thriller, mystery, and horror movie by incorporating new details and modifying the original version of the story. The short story relates the failed courtship of Katrina Van Tassel by Ichabod Crane. His courtship is cut short by the classic romance antagonist-the bigger, stronger, and better looking Broom Bones. Ichabod wishes to marry Katrina because of her beauty but also because of the wealthy inheritance she will receive when her father, Baltus Van Tassel and stepmother, Lady Van Tassel die. However, the film tells the story of Ichabod Crane as an investigator who is sent to Sleepy Hollow to investigate the recent decapitations that are occurring. These modifications alter the original story entirely, thus failing to capture the Irving’s true interpretation of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” The film and the original story have similarities and differences in the plot, characters, and setting.
In Washington Irving’s work “Rip Van Winkle,” Irving demonstrates all characteristics of an American Mythology rather humorously. These characteristics affect the story attracting the attention of readers and impacting the reader’s experience of the story by relishing America’s unique attributes and values. In “Rip Van Winkle,” Irving incorporates attributes of American Mythology by setting the story in exciting pastimes, filling the story with strange and exaggerated characters, and featuring magical mysterious events.
In his stories the women were not portrayed as nice. Women were usually nagging and would fight with their husbands. Some critics felt that Irving took an anti-feminism approach to his writing. However some critic feel that The Legend of Sleepy Hollow shows importance of marriage. Some critics also argue the quality of his work. Some pieces of his work are considered remarkable. While other pieces of his work are considered not to be that good.
Irving does this to help readers realize how caught up the society of Sleepy Hollow is with their past. Irving frequently brings up the Revolutionary war and how the headless horseman was a Hessian soldier from the war. When he writes, “The dominant spirit that haunts this enchanted region is the apparition of a figure on horseback without a head. It is said to be the ghost of a Hessian trooper, whose head had been carried away by a cannonball in some nameless battle during the Revolutionary War… The specter is known, at all the country firesides, by the name of the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow” (Irving 2). This is an allusion to the Revolutionary war because the headless horseman was a hessian soldier. This explains the theme of supernatural because the Headless Horseman haunts their town and the main character, Ichabod Crane, comes across the ghost of him. Another major allusion in “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” is Ichabod's belief in witches. The author supports this when saying, “He was, moreover, esteemed by the women as a man of great erudition, for he had read several books quite through, and was a perfect master of Cotton Mather's 'History of New England Witchcraft” (Irving 4). Ichabod also believes in the supernatural past. His belief in witches supports the theme of supernatural within the book. Referring to the past using allusion develops different themes within the
In Rip Van Winkle, Irving shows his doubts in the American Identity and the American dream. After the Revolutionary war, America was trying to develop its own course. They were free to govern their own course of development; however, some of them had an air of uncertainties on their own identity in this new country. Irving was born among this generation in the newly created United States of America, and also felt uncertainty about the American identity. Irving might be the writer that is the least positive about being an American. The main reason for this uncertainty is the new born American has no history and tradition while the Europe has a great one accumulated for thousands of years. Therefore, in order to solve this problem, Irving borrows an old European tale to make it take place in America. This tale related to the Dutch colonists haunts the kaatskill mountains. In order to highlight the American identity, Irving praises the “majestic” mountains which Europe lacks. He describes the mountains that “their summits…will glow and light up like a crown of glory” Nevertheless, the use of these ancient explorers into Rip Van Winkle only to show that although American has formed its own identity, no one can cut its connection with Europe. No wonder when America was still under tyranny of the British rule, some people still cannot cut the blood relationship with Europe. Therefore, the American identity is blurred by their relationship with Europe since then.
Edgar Allan Poe was a man considered by many to be the personification of Death. He is regarded as a true American Genius whose works seized and frightened the minds of millions. However, Poe greatly differed from other acclaimed authors of his time. He had a unique writing style that completely altered the reality surrounding his readers. Rather than touch their hearts with lovable fictional characters he found a way of expressing himself that no other author had at the time. Poe’s combination of demented genius and difficult past experiences led him to become one of the greatest writers of all time.
Have you ever imagined being asleep in the forest for twenty years, coming back home and not knowing what has gone on all those years of your absence? Rip Van Winkle went through that, and had to come back home and face some real changes. The author Washington Irving has some interesting characters whom he puts in his short stories. Irving puts some characters in his short stories to reflect on some of his life. For example, Irving has similarities between Rip Van Winkle being asleep in the forest 20 years and Irving was in Europe for seventeen writing short stories and being the governor’s aid and military secretary. These two situations are similar, because they both didn’t know what they were going to come back too and were gone for such a long period of time. Irving does put some of his own life into his short stories and with a reason for his self-reflective works.