Washington Irving (1783-1859) fue un prolífico escritor estadounidense del siglo XIX, destacado por sus contribuciones a la literatura romántica y su papel en el desarrollo de la identidad literaria de Estados Unidos. Nacido en Nueva York, Irving se ganó el reconocimiento tanto en su país natal como en el extranjero por sus cautivadoras historias y su habilidad para fusionar elementos de la tradición europea y americana en su obra.
Irving es más conocido por sus cuentos y leyendas, siendo "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" y "Rip Van Winkle" dos de sus obras más icónicas. Estos relatos capturan la esencia de la fantasía y la sátira, revelando su aguda observación de la sociedad y su destreza para mezclar lo sobrenatural con la vida cotidiana.
Además de sus contribuciones a la ficción, Irving también desempeñó un papel activo en la promoción de la historia y la cultura estadounidenses. Su obra "A History of New York" bajo el seudónimo de Dietrich Knickerbocker, aunque satírica, contribuyó al desarrollo de una identidad literaria independiente en Estados Unidos.
2. The Sketch Book (1819-20)
Travel writing — travel sketch
The Grand Tour
Sketch: unfinished, reflection
Fictional persona: Geoffrey Crayon
Romanticism: emphasis on self, on
the individual that provides meaning
to external experiences
3. “English Writers on America”
● It brings to light English stereotypes and criticism
of America
● It praises the recently-born nation, its values and
promising future — American Dream
● It aims at reconciling both nations
father-son relationship; imitation/emancipation (Kant)
Constitution of the United States
(1789)
4. The American Dream
● National ethos of the United States
● Opportunity — upward social mobility
● John Locke: “Being all equal and independent, no one
ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or
possessions.” (1689)
● Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to
be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they
are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the
pursuit of Happiness." Declaration of Independence
(1776)
6. Transcendentalism
New England, 1830s-1850s
Belief in an essential unity of all
creation (nature - self)
Individuals as inherently good; society
corrupts them
“Self-Reliance” (1841): emphasis on
subjective intuition — deepest truths
Democratic aspirations: women’s and
workers’ rights, free religion, educational
innovation (Romanticism)
Fur Traders Descending the Missouri, by George Caleb Bingham
(1845)
7. ● The Scholar — Man Thinking
● Scholar’s Education
Nature — the self
Past (books) vs. the genius
Action — experience
● Scholar’s Duties
● Evolution of mankind and literature
“The American Scholar” (1837)
8. ● Essential Oneness (Transcendentalism)
• ‘One Man’
• ‘One Root’: nature is the opposite of the soul
• ‘circular power’ — eternity
● The Particular — The Universal
• knowing yourself — knowing humankind and nature
• everyday life — the sublime (Romanticism)
● Self-Reliance
• the scholar must think and experience for himself to
create and guide
• creation of the genius as spontaneous (Wordsworth)
“The American Scholar” (1837)
Kindred Spirits, by Asher B. Durand
(1849)
9. Irving and Emerson on Nationalism
“Is this golden band of kindred sympathies, so rare between nations, to be broken for
ever?—Perhaps it is for the best—it may dispel an illusion which might have kept us
in mental vassalage; which might have interfered occasionally with our true interests,
and prevented the growth of proper national pride. But it is hard to give up the
kindred tie! and there are feelings dearer than interest —closer to the heart than
pride— that will still make us cast back a look of regret, as we wander farther and
farther from the paternal roof, and lament the waywardness of the parent that would
repel the affections of the child.” (Irving 1820)
“Our day of dependence, our long apprenticeship to the learning of other lands,
draws to a close. The millions, that around us are rushing into life, cannot always be
fed on the sere remains of foreign harvests. Events, actions arise, that must be sung,
that will sing themselves. Who can doubt, that poetry will revive and lead in a new
age, as the star in the constellation Harp, which now flames in our zenith,
astronomers announce, shall one day be the pole-star for a thousand years?”
(Emerson 1837)
