Rip Van Winkle

1 change

1 sublime

3 hen-pecked husband

4 stories of ghosts, witches, and Indians

4 sentiment: Rip + children

5 aversion to all kinds of profitable labor

6 comic farm

10-11 stories, great tree

10 satire: profound discussions

12 Mrs VW as comic stereotype

13 his only alternative, to escape from the labor of the farm and clamor of his wife, was to take gun in hand and stroll away into the woods

15 ghost story

16 strange figure slowly toiling up the rocks

17 sublime

19 spirits in nature

21 other ghost story option

25 The rocks presented a high impenetrable wall over which the torrent came tumbling in a sheet of feathery foam, and fell into a broad deep basin, black from the shadows of the surrounding forest. [<brief touches of sublime & gothic<]

26 dress, too, was of a different fashion

27 The very village was altered; it was larger and more populous. There were rows of houses which he had never seen before, and those which had been his familiar haunts had disappeared. Strange names were over the doors—strange faces at the windows—everything was strange.

28 the house gone to decay [gothic]

30 the village inn—but it too was gone

31 rights of citizens*—elections—members of congress—liberty*—Bunker’s Hill*—heroes of seventy-six*

32 a loyal subject of the king, God bless him!”

36 There was a wooden tombstone in the church-yard that used to tell all about him, but that’s rotten and gone too.” [gothic]

41 sad changes in his home and friends, and finding himself thus alone in the world. Every answer puzzled him too, by treating of such enormous lapses of time [irony: not that much time has passed for all these changes],

43 He doubted his own identity, and whether he was himself or another man.

[44] “God knows,” exclaimed he, at his wit’s end; “I’m not myself—I’m somebody else

 

 

 

New York Folklore Society on RVW

 

 

 

 

Romance

RVW [13] Poor Rip was at last reduced almost to despair; and his only alternative, to escape from the labor of the farm and clamor of his wife, was to take gun in hand and stroll away into the woods.

 

 

Sleepy Hollow

8 Rip comical

14 female circle, country damsels

20 Katrina

21a soft and foolish heart

26 romance quest, knight-errant + lady of his heart [satire / comedy]

31 how women's hearts are wooed and won

32 knights-errant of yore [satire / comedy]

35 in the true spirit of romantic story

47 border chivalry

54 something must have gone wrong

 

 

RVW 15 classic ghost story moment

RVW 30, 31 satire

Irving

humor

RVW 7-8, 12 (Mrs. VW), 21-2 (drunkenness)

 

sublime

RVW 17

captivity narrative RVW 48

Henry Hudson 55

 

 

 

 

 

Legend of Sleepy Hollow

 

Disney opening

Ichabod homeward

Headless Horseman

 

 

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

 

1 One of the quietest places in the world

4 vicinity of a church

6 fixed x torrent of immigration and improvement

8 humorous description of Ichabod [< grotesque >]

16 satire, limits of human mind

27 Brom as proto-Romantic hero but here stock for satire

33 sentimental stereotype (appropriate to satire) + 46   sentimental stereotypes (link to Katrina too)

36 Gunpowder [wit / humor]

39 abundance

49 shifting throng of population

55, 56 correspondence

56 gothic of past crime

57 wilderness gothic

59 huge, misshapen, and towering + gloom [gothic & sublime]   the gothic, the sublime

62 whitewashed church [gothic as demonic implies opposite as angelic]

 

Sleepy Hollow sentimental stereotype 33, 46

 

 

 

1. Besides cartoons and movies, how and why does everyone already know the stories of Rip Van Winkle and Sleepy Hollow, even if you've never read them before? (Not asking for practical answers but analysis of why these stories remain relevant or memorable to modern America.)

•  

2. What about these stories is essentially American and appeals to American readers? How are these stories still about America?

 

 

1 One of the quietest places in the world

6 fixed x torrent of immigration and improvement

49 shifting throng of population

 

 

Rip Van Winkle

27 The very village was altered; it was larger and more populous. There were rows of houses which he had never seen before, and those which had been his familiar haunts had disappeared. Strange names were over the doors—strange faces at the windows—everything was strange.

 

 

3. Identify the gothic (esp. the wilderness gothic), the sublime, and correspondence in Rip Van Winkle & Sleepy Hollow.

 

 

gothic: Sleepy Hollow

 

3 see strange sights, and hear music and voices in the air. The whole neighborhood abounds with local tales, haunted spots, and twilight superstitions; stars shoot and meteors glare

 

5 (that region of shadows),

 

17 marvellous tales of ghosts and goblins, and haunted fields, and haunted brooks, and haunted bridges, and haunted houses, and particularly of the headless horseman,

 

49 tales of ghosts and apparitions,

 

51 dark and light of gothic,

 

56 tree, 57 groan, 58 cavernous gloom,

 

69 schoolhouse haunted

 

 

 

sublime: Sleepy Hollow 59 something huge, misshapen & towering [+ gothic], 61,

 

 

 

correspondence: Sleepy Hollow 55, 56
(last class: Ligeia correspondence b/w narrator's inner mind and environment (curtains moving, hallucinations, Rowena > Ligeia)

 

 

4. Historicism: How do we learn history from fiction, and how does fiction shape history? (+ historical fiction)

 

applies to questions 1 & 2

 

Sleepy Hollow 33, 46

 

paragraph 20: Katrina

19 stereotypes essential to comedy, satire?

 

Dame Van Winkle as nagging shrew, Rip as henpecked husband

 

 

 

5. Rip Van Winkle and Sleepy Hollow are early Romanticism, but also late Classical-Enlightenment, esp. in use of Satire. How is the characterization satirical or comical / humorous?? (see Periods of Literature)

 

 

 

 

5a. Romanticism usually isn't funny—why not?  (Realism tends to be more humorous, e.g. Mark Twain, Ben Franklin.) How are the stories told by Rip Van Winkle & Sleepy Hollow comedy as well as romance narrative? (narrative genres)

 

 

Ichabod description paragraph 8

 

 

 

stereotypes essential to comedy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Besides cartoons and movies, how and why does everyone know the stories of Rip Van Winkle and Sleepy Hollow, even if never read before?

Sleepy Hollow 6 (people don't move), 24 (Kentucky, TN)

Rip Van Winkle 30, 31

What about these stories is essentially American and appeals to American readers?

Identify the gothic, the sublime, and correspondence in Rip Van Winkle, Sleepy Hollow, and Mohicans

gothic: Mohicans 

gothic: RVW 26, 28 (cabin), 36 tomb marker

gothic: Sleepy Hollow 5 (that region of shadows), 17 ghosts and goblins, 49 tales of ghosts and apparitions, 51 dark and light of gothic, 56 tree, 57 groan, 58 cavernous gloom, 69 schoolhouse haunted

sublime: Mohicans 

sublime: RVW 1, 17, 26,

sublime: Sleepy Hollow 59 something huge, misshapen & towering [+ gothic], 61,

correspondence: Mohicans 

correspondence: RVW

correspondence: Sleepy Hollow 55, 56

Historicism: How do we learn history from fiction, and how does fiction reshape history?

Sleepy Hollow is early Romanticism, but also late Classical-Enlightenment, esp. in its use of Satire. How is the characterization satirical? Why isn't Romanticism usually funny?

presentation on Satire