Transcript Washington Irving - Cumberland University

Washington Irving
Irving was the first American
writer to achieve an international
literary reputation.
He was a Romantic with a great sense
of tradition, looking to the old world
(Europe) for models.
A History of New York
This book was a parody of another
popular history of the day. The book
was launched by a charming publicity
campaign. First, a newspaper noted
the disappearance of a “small, elderly
gentleman, dressed in an old black
coat and cocked hat, by the name of
“Knickerbocker,” adding that there
were “some reasons for believing he
is not entirely in his right mind.”
Framing Device
After further “news” items, the old man’s
fictitious landlord announced that he had found in
Knickerbocker’s room a “very curious kind of
written book” which he intended to dispose of to
pay the bill that was owed him, and the book at
last appeared, ascribed to Diedrich
Knickerbocker.
With its publication, Irving became an American
celebrity.
The Sketch Book
• While working on this book, Irving met the
famous English writer Sir Walter Scott, who
directed Irving’s attention to the wealth of
unused literary material in German
folktales. There Irving found the source for
“Rip Van Winkle.”
• For this book, Irving adopted the new
pseudonym Geoffrey Crayon.
• The book included “Rip Van Winkle” and
“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.”
Irving’s Contributions to the
Short Story Form
From F.L. Pattee’s essay on Irving in
Development of American Short Story
1. He made short fiction popular.
After the sensational triumph of The Sketch Book,
a success that stirred greatly the imagination of
the younger seekers for literary recognition,
sketches and tales became the literary fashion in
America, and in such volume did they come that
vehicles for their dissemination became
imperative. The various popular magazines that
sprang up in the 1830’s and 1840’s were
indirectly the fruit of Irving’s success as a sketch
writer.
2. He was the first prominent
writer to strip the prose tale of its
moral and didactic elements and
to make of it a literary form
solely for entertainment.
“I have preferred addressing myself
to the feeling and fancy of the reader
more than to his judgment . . . . My
writings, therefore, may appear light
and trifling to our country of
philosophers and politicians.”
3. He added to the short tale
richness of atmosphere and unity
of tone.
4. He added definite locality,
actual American scenery and
people.
He was a pioneer in that new school
which demanded an American
literature, an art that would work in
native materials in an original
manner.
5. He was the first writer of fiction to
realize that the shorter form of
narrative could be made something
new and different, but that to do it
required a peculiar nicety of
execution and patient workmanship.
“. . . In these shorter writings every
page must have merit . . . . Woe to
[the author] if he makes an awkward
sentence or writes a stupid page; the
critics are sure to pounce upon it.”
6. He added humor to the short
story and lightness of touch, and
made it human and appealing.
7. He was original.
He constantly avoided, as he
expressed it, the “commonplace of
the day.”
8. His characters are always
definite individuals and not types
or symbols.
9. He endowed the short story
with a distinctive and beautiful
style.
In many respects, Irving was a
detriment to the development of
the short story.
So far as modern technique is
concerned, Irving retarded its growth
for a generation. He became from the
first a model to be followed by all.
To him may be traced the origin of
that wave of sentimentalism and
unrestrained romance that surged
through the annuals and the popular
magazines for three decades.
Edgar Allan Poe was powerless
in the 1830’s and 1840’s in his
attempts to change the technique
of the form.
Poe’s careful analysis was either
unread by his generation or else
unheeded because it was a revolt
from Irving.
1. Of form as we know it today,
the tales of Irving have little.
• His genius was not dramatic. He delighted
to saunter through his piece, sketching as he
went, and chatting genially about his
characters.
• There is lacking sprightly dialogue,
movement unimpeded by description or
exposition, additional characters with more
collisions and more contrasts, and finally a
swift culmination involving all the
characters and factors at work in the story.
2. To Irving, plot seemed
unessential.
• “Rip Van Winkle” has six pages of material
before there is any movement.
• “For my part, I consider a story merely as a
frame on which to stretch my materials.”
• Of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” he
said, “The story is a mere whimsical band to
connect descriptions of scenery, customs,
manners, etc.”
3. Irving was gentle to the verge
of squeamishness.
• A friend of his said, “He looks upon life as a
picture, but to catch its beauties, its lights--not
its defects and shadows. On the former he
loved to dwell. He had a wonderful knack of
shutting his eyes to the sinister side of
anything.”
• This lack of robustness in Irving is one cause
of the timid softness that characterized so
much of American fiction during the greater
part of the century.
4. Irving did not attempt anything
serious.
Irving finally wrote history; he was
not interested in saying anything
unique about the human condition.
Irving’s influence
• Irving introduced to American literature the form
that has become its most distinctive literary product,
the short story.
• As schoolboys, Hawthorne and Longfellow were
inspired by the success of The Sketch Book.
• Irving was generous to younger writers all his life,
supervising the London publication of William
Cullen Bryant’s poems in 1832.
• The southwestern humorists of the 1840’s learned
from him that realistic details of rural life in
America could be worked memorably into fiction.