American literature: For more than 200 years there was no aesthetic literature in America, it
appeared only in the 19th century. EXPERIENCE is very important for American authors.
Irving: he was the first to write fiction for entertainment purposes in American literary history.
Short Stories: In American literature short stories have the greatest artistic value (old and new stories alike).
Rip Van Winkle:
- It avoids the revolution itself
- The hero is Dutch who is living in a Dutch village.
- He is alienated from the world, he escapes
Sources:
- Dutch (place and hero)
- German (note)
- Native American (post script)
- + The new American identity
Place: Hudson Bay, it’s a symbolic place -- HOME, a place to live, to settle down.
Time: It’s a real historical time, with historical event (and/or reference to them)
Action:
- Rip Van Winkle can’t bear the world of reality so...
- ... he goes into nature, symbolic -- idea of romanticism: NATURE = WORLD OF FICTION
- and he falls asleep, SLEEPING = THE WAY TO APPROACH FICTION
- King George III. -- George Washington (president)
- The story changes through narrations
- Already at the beginning Irving makes the world of fiction and the world of reality hopelessly unspeakable.
Dreaming: he dreams about nothing in 20 years - lack of topics - MODERNISM: there is nothing to write about as or ancestors have already written about everything.