Washington Irving Flashcards
Birth/Death
1783-1859
Early Career
Satirical Writing, including a History of New York, praised by Walter Scott
Influences
Addison, Shakespeare and Sterne
Expatriate
Lives in Europe for 17 years
The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.
First American to Achieve International Literary Fame (Not quite true - Phillis Wheatley)
Later Career
Diplomat, Minister to Spain
What younger writers does Irving influence?
Hawthorne, Longfellow and Melville as Schoolboys
Rip Van Winkle Sources
True sources in German Folk Tales; Frame narrative = found in papers of Knickerbocker, allusion to his satirical History of New York
Rip Van Winkle Setting
Catskills in the time of British Rule
Rip Van Winkle, Character
Anti-Franklinian Counter-Hero
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow Setting
Sleepy Hollow, near Terrytown, NY
Ichabod Crane
School Master, Gangly, Mistaken for a Scare Crow. Used the rod on school children. Women admired his taste.
Katrina Van Tassel
- Beautiful and rich coquette
- Pastoral homestead filled with luxury
- Ichabod’s mouth waters with thoughts of plenty, luxury
Brom Van Brunt a.k.a. “Brom Bones”
- Jocular, Herculean Suitor of Katrina Van Tassel
- Claims to have raced the Headless Horseman
- Perhaps the Headless Horseman who chased off Ichabod?
Mock-Epic Courtship Plot
- Poking Fun at Crane as a Don Quixote Figure
- Katrina Van Tassel as Coquette
- -“He that wins a thousand common hearts, is therefore entitled to some renown; but he who keeps undisputed sway over the heart of a coquette, is indeed a hero.”
When was “Sketch Book” published?
1820
What is the name of the work in which “Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle” appear?
The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.
Who is Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.?
The central figure of Irving’s frame narrative for the collection of tales that would bring him international fame. It is his papers that supposedly contain “Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle” – though these stories were supposedly written by yet another invented persona, Diedrich Knickerbocker.
Within the context of the frame narrative, who is “Rip Van Winkle” written by?
Diedrich Knickerbocker (the imaginary character who supposedly wrote Irvings “History of New York”)
How does Rip Van Winkle emphasize the shortness of American history?
Though published in 1820, tales from “Sketch Book” place even earlier; “Rip Van Winkle” starts before the Revolutionary War. Even though Rip is only asleep for twenty years, that short period of time is enough to render the part of America he had known completely unrecognizable.
After spending time in Europe, where history is…pretty ancient…this difference would have been especially striking to Irving. The idea that the twenty years could be the beginning of a national history and identity was exciting and worthy of exploration.
(Though we should note at the same time that the presence of some mysterious force in the forest alludes to a prior culture. Interestingly, it’s not Native American, but earlier settlers who are the source of mysterious forces. Irving’s elision of Native American presence is important.)
Rip Van Winkle: Discuss the role of Native Americans in this story.
The mysterious forces in the mountains are notably not Native American, but European – Rip sees those dressed like the earliest Dutch settlers. Native American traditions are included in a postscript to the story as further proof that there is something supernatural in the mountains of that region.
The presence – or lack thereof – of Native Americans is also interesting considering this story’s positioning at the “beginning” of American history.
Rip Van Winkle: What is Rip’s cultural heritage/that of the Hudson River Valley?
Dutch
In whose papers was found the text of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”?
Diedrich Knickerbocker
Sleepy Hollow: What Quals text is referenced in this work?
The Nun’s Priest’s Tale from The Canterbury Tales (Chanticleer is one of the things to be eaten at Katrina’s ball).