Sample Student Research Project 2018: Journal
LITR
4328 American Renaissance / Model Assignments
Sample Student Research Project 2018:
Journal
Jasmine Choate
A Timeline of the Gothic
Surrounding the Headless Horseman
Research Proposal:
For
my re-try research proposal, I found inspiration in a small thrift store this
weekend, when I stumbled across a book titled “Sleepy Hollow: Rise Headless and
Ride”. It is the story of Sleepy Hollow, reimagined. This led me to think about
how much of an impact Washington Irving’s story has made on our culture today.
So, for my research project, I’d like to do a journal where I discover exactly
how far and wide that impact goes. I’d start with an introduction discussing my
initial reaction to reading Washington Irving’s story for the first time in this
course, as well as what I was surprised to learn from it. Then I’d move on to
discussing the story and the key characteristics that make this story an
important part of the Romantic period. I would then dive into different forms of
adaptations (books/movies/children’s books/stage plays etc.), which I’d compare
and contrast with the original source text’s writing style and narrative. I’d
break up journal entries by the different type of adaptation. I’d also like to
look into the geographical and perhaps cultural impacts that the text has left
on society today. For example, I had no clue that there was an actual town
called Sleepy Hollow. For my conclusion, I’d reflect on the new deeper
understanding that I have gained about the text and the gothic genre through my
research.
Instructor Response:
Thanks for the second proposal, Jasmine, and yes, it's
plenty factual or informational enough to work as a journal. About the Romantic
period, don't forget that it's early in the period and so has characteristics
also of the Enlightenment, esp. satire and comedy but also those genres' or
styles' limits of stereotyping or limitations on social behavior. I suggest this
because the more interesting edge of your topic is how it gets historically
reimagined. Sorry if this explanation is a jumble, but its connection to the
Enlightenment and the nation's founding make it almost like a founding text of
American literature and culture--so much so that everyone already knows it
without having to read it.
You can keep the gothic in sight, but the subject or
field of your journal sounds like "cultural history," so you could ask how the
gothic develops or changes from the original text to Sleepy Hollow's later
developments or appearances. For instance, the recent movie exploits the gothic
in sensational terms, lacking the decorum or restraint with which the original
text operations.
You may well find some advanced research on this subject,
so consider asking a reference librarian at the UHCL library for help. Another
research possibility, as in my previous response, would be to read some reviews
of the movie, or even some travel articles about the town. Anyway, this topic is
fine to stay with, and welcome to confer anytime.
Introduction:
Having read
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow for this
first time in this course, I was extremely fascinated with it. The idea that
this short story from so long ago being known by mostly everyone in our culture
today shows the legacy that Washington Irving created. There are many different
key characteristics of the period within this short story; however, the gothic
elements are what stuck out to me the most. This will drive my research, as I
plan to look into different retellings of Irving’s story and compare and
contrast how time and culture have effected the gothic elements within the tale
of The Headless Horseman.
I will essentially build a timeline of adaptations and
retellings of the source material, The
Legend of Sleepy Hollow, in order to stabilize my understanding of Irving’s
tale and its use of gothic elements. I will analyze the gothic elements within
each to uncover the ties they have back to their original source material. The
most intriguing and unique element Irving uses is the wilderness gothic.
Comparing and contrasting the different approaches of wilderness gothic will
lead most of my research. I also plan to search for reviews of the adaptations,
as suggested by Dr. White, in order to discover different perspectives on the
changes made in each. By the end of my research, I hope to gain a better sense
of exactly how much this tale has impacted and influenced gothic culture
throughout history.
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by: Washington Irving:
1819
In order to begin my timeline of the
gothic elements I must first build a foundation by examining the key
characteristics within Irving’s tale, since it is the source material for all
the retellings that were influenced throughout the timeline. As I mentioned
before, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
is successful in expressing the Wilderness Gothic especially at the climax of
the story, the chase. Irving uses the mysterious setting of the forest in order
to help build vivid and eerie imagery within this horror story; “Its limbs were
gnarled and fantastic, large enough to form trunks for ordinary trees, twisting
down almost to the earth, and rising again into the air.” [56] This elevates the
reader’s imagination of the tree in order to divulge us into the story more, and
help us put ourselves into the fearful shoes of Ichabod Crane. Without these
descriptions, the story would fail to captivate the reader, and thus would not
have been as long lasting. Irving also uses wilderness gothic as a means to
build suspense and indicate that something is not right; “The night grew darker
and darker; the stars seemed to sink deeper into the sky, and driving clouds
occasionally hid them from his sight.” [56] This suspense building sets up the
story for its heart thumping chase scene between the Headless Horseman and
Ichabod.
While the story is filled with elements
of the Wilderness Gothic, there are also other forms of Gothic elements, as well
as the Sublime. The method of using Dark/Light tones is most heavily seen with
Ichabod traveling through the forest. At first he enjoys the scenery and
idealizes the nature as a part of his potential life with Katrina. Yet on the
way back, after hearing more ghost stories, the superstitious outsider, Crane,
is left to see the forest as frightening and dangerous. The dark and light
contrast is obvious in how Ichabod’s imagination and fears elevate the tone of
the woods, which is the same both times. Since this story is built upon a
legend, it’s impossible to not also see the Gothic within the tales of the
Horseman haunting the church, as well the possibility that some people believe
Ichabod’s ghost to be haunting the schoolhouse after his unfortunate encounter
with the horseman. Although a horror story, this was not as violent and brutal
as one might initially think. However, the description of the horseman holding
his own severed head is a nod to the typical grotesque factors within the genre.
The element of Sublime is woven into the Gothic through the dark description of
the horseman looming on Ichabod; “he beheld something huge, misshapen and
towering. It stirred not, but seemed gathered up in the gloom, like some
gigantic monster ready to spring upon the traveller.” [59] The image of the
horseman is built within us as an elevated being that is dangerous and strikes
fear within Ichabod because of how enormous he is. These are all key elements in
which I will be analyzing in other works throughout my research as they play a
major part within the original text. To see how they develop and differ
throughout time will be an interesting discovery.
Artist Depiction: 1905
Before diving into the usual types of
adaptations of literature, I decided to search up some Art that depicts
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. This
idea came to me from some of our earlier lessons in which we, as a class,
discussed what elements of the period we could see within paintings and other
forms of art. So, I began my search for paintings, illustrations, or sketches.
My search brought me to a website called Art Net, where I found a depiction of
Ichabod Crane walking through the haunting woods. This illustration is done with
pen, ink, and watercolor by artist Arthur Rackham in 1905. Immediately I was
able to identify some of the gothic elements brought to art within this. Here we
see the wilderness gothic displayed quite successfully and true to the story.
The color scheme gives a tone of darkness in the scenery. The tall sickly
looking tree being blown by the wind creates a harshness of the nature. Ichabod
even appears to be fearful in the illustration through keeping eyesight faced
toward the ground rather than the bleak and dark environment around him.
The Headless Horseman on The Big Screen: 1922/1999
One of the most common forms of
re-telling classic literature is through film, which is why I wanted to find two
different approaches of adaptations of this well-known story. This first being a
silent film from 1922 and the second being the 1999 Tim Burton version. With the
latter being incredibly popular, especially with my generation, I wanted to look
into something I had not heard of before, which is how I discovered the 1992
silent film “The Headless Horseman” starring Will Rogers as Ichabod Crane. I
found that these two movies were on opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes
to how the gothic was portrayed. Partly, having to do with the technology of the
time period. Knowing that The Legend of
Sleepy Hollow has elements of both comedy and gothic, it was not as
surprising to find that the silent film leaned more heavily on the comedy side
of the storytelling. I went into this thinking of this silent film as a stepping
stone from literature to film, as it was in history. The main element that
contributed to their small amount of gothic tone was the soundtrack and music
playing throughout the film. It added suspense and helped the film where it
lacked in setting and the descriptions of nature, due to it being in black and
white. Whenever the Horseman appeared on screen, he blended in with the attempt
of a dark background. There was also a small use of dark vs light with the horse
of Ichabod being almost blindingly white compared to the Headless Horseman’s
dark black horse. Another change that muted the gothic and sublime elements
within the film was that when it all boiled down to it, everything was a prank
on Ichabod set up by Brom Bones. In the original text, the ending is left open
for the readers which adds a level or eeriness and mystery and leaves the reader
thinking; “What really happened to Ichabod?” However, this film revealing Brom
as the horseman, only contributed more to the slapstick humor that is mostly
recognized with silent films.
With the 1999 “Sleepy Hollow” Tim Burton
adaptation starring Johnny Depp, we see the Gothic and horror take center stage.
Tim Burton certainly took everything that made
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow a
haunting tale and elevated everything immensely. The setting being the most
prominent since it remains dark and dismal completely throughout. We constantly
see the fog, lightning, thick dark woods, hear strange noises coming from
nature, all of which were elements within the original source. One elevated
essence of gothic was how gruesome and violent this version was. We saw
beheadings left and right as well as plenty of blood. The tree of the dead is a
prime example of something that was taken from the original text (the haunting
tree) and given more modern horror and gothic elements. For example, when the
blood starts splattering out of it while Ichabod attempts to make a hole in it,
as well as its use as a storage locker for the decaying heads of the Horseman’s
victims. In this scene, especially, the color scheme attends to the gothic tones
with the greyscale forest, Ichabod’s pale white skin, and the deep velvety red
blood splatter on his face. I read through a few movie reviews, most of which
spoke of Depp’s performance, and found one on Empire Online by Bob Mccabe that
mentioned the effect of the color scheme; “Limiting his palette to dark hues and
earth tones, Burton gets maximum impact from the one primary colour he allows
himself - blood red.” (Mccabe) The fact that Burton chose to keep the
greyscale/dark color scheme throughout the film immediately shows how the gothic
in 1999 used an elevated more grand scale in order to grasp the readers into the
horror story. This film was everything gothic about
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow on
steroids with its grotesque Hessian Horseman, death and decay, and bloody
suspenseful action sequences. Which makes sense with technology advancing
throughout the years and more and more films being made of this classic story,
Tim Burton had to put his own gothic and fantastical spin on it.
Influence on The Writers of Today: 2014
As I mentioned in my research proposal,
one of the reasons I wanted to focus on Washington Irving’s
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow was
because I stumbled across a young adult retelling titled
Sleepy Hollow: Rise Headless and Ride
by Richard Gleaves. This is a story about Jason Crane, who discovers that he is
the last descendant of Ichabod Crane, and is forced to move to the town of
Sleepy Hollow by his grandmother. Here he encounters other descendants of
Irving’s original characters and so ensues a coming of age story that
incorporates a lot of the lore from the original text while giving it a modern
spin. Since the main character is in high school, and this book is aimed at
young adults, a lot of this story does have to do with some common teenage
issues: love triangles, sexuality, and bullying. However, that does not take
away from the fact that Gleaves incorporated
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow in a
refreshing way by having the story exist within the book. This leads the reader
to be unsure if weather or not the town of Sleepy Hollow is actually haunted, or
just creepy. Although not as vividly described, this version does manage to
incorporate some wilderness gothic throughout the book; “a massive stone
foundation hung over the water, a crumbling and sinister ruin. Vines spiraled up
the nearby trees and squeezed their neighbor’s trunks like fingers around a
throat.” (Gleaves, 154) This is when Jason discovers the remains of the bridge
from the story that he believed to not be real. Another common characteristic of
gothic literature is a haunted house, such as the one Jason and his grandmother
move into. The house is described as “the house that shouted” (Gleaves, 46)
since Jason kept hearing voices speak to him while in the house.
One thing that displays how the gothic
has changed is that now it is most commonly seen in a supernatural or paranormal
aspect. Which is certainly this case with this book, and most young adult gothic
horror novels. The element of Jason being a psychic and having visions is what
differs the most from the original text. However, this was an interesting way of
having him uncover the secrets that lie within the town of Sleepy Hollow. If
anything, this book was certainly an interesting supplement to the original
text, as a nod and homage to Irving’s short story with passages cleverly placed
throughout, and references to pivotal scenes. I was hoping to find a book review
to see what someone else took away from this retelling, yet was not able to.
However, I did find and listen to an interesting interview with the author,
Richard Gleaves. In the interview, he explains how much Irving’s writing
influenced him to visit Sleepy Hollow and write about it just as he had. Before
reading The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
in this course I had not known that it was an actual town. One thing this book
did well was its description of what the town is like today. After listening to
the interview, I realized this was because Gleaves took a trip and spent three
years getting all his descriptions and details just right. He describes the real
town by saying; “You just feel like you want to wander the streets and
whisper unseen presences. There’s just something about it.” (Bauserman/Gleaves)
This certainly comes through with his comparisons between what Jason sees in
Sleepy Hollow vs. what he imagines it used to look like during Ichabod’s time
there. Throughout the novel, the reader gets the sense that something just is
not right with the town, or some of the people who live there. Despite the
contemporary spin, Sleepy Hollow was still haunting, eerie, and gothic brought
to life through the pages.
Conclusion:
Through building this timeline of the different Headless
Horsemen, I was able to discover how the methods of gothic fiction had changed
within the influence and adaptations of Washington Irving’s
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. I was
able to recognize that this story succeeds in being haunting and eerie, as a
gothic horror should be, despite being written so long ago. It did not need the
gimmicks and elaborate use of tropes within modern horror to be downright creepy
to the audience. I was obviously expecting the drastic shift within the gothic
elements as my timeline went further along, yet was surprised by the vast
different approaches that were taken to retell a popular American story about an
outsider looking into a town with a hair-raising lore surrounding it. The gothic
within the tale started heavily nature inspired and description based, was then
brought to life through a whimsical illustration, overshadowed by slap-stick
comedy, escalated through bloody visuals, and then weaved into a modern coming
of age novel.
My idea on how I would continue this research stems from
the interview I mentioned with author Richard Gleaves. He spoke a lot about the
history of the town of Sleepy Hollow and the history of ghost stories within the
town and the people in it. I think it would be interesting to dig into what came
before The Legend of Sleepy Hollow in
order to influence Irving to create his story. I’d want to extend my timeline in
the opposite direction, to establish a prequel of sorts to this research.
Works Cited
Bauserman, Luke, and Richard Gleaves. “New Legends of
Sleepy Hollow:An Interview With Author Richard Gleaves.” 2017,
www.lukebauserman.com/theweeklyholler/new-legends-sleepy-hollow-interview-author-richard-gleaves/.
Burton, Tim, director. Sleepy Hollow. Paramount
Pictures, 1999.
Gleaves, Richard. Sleepy Hollow: Rise Headless and
Ride. Turtlebug Publishing, 2014.
Irving, Washington. “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” 1819,
coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/texts/AmClassics/RomFiction/Irving/sleepyhollow.htm.
Mccabe, Bob. “Sleepy Hollow Review.” Review of Sleepy
Hollow. Empire, www.empireonline.com/movies/sleepy-hollow/review/.
Rackham, Arthur. “Ichabod Crane from the Legend of Sleepy
Hollow by ArthurRackham.” Art Net, Pace Gallery,
www.artnet.com/artists/arthur-rackham/ichabod-crane-from-the-legend-of-sleepy-hollow-KKKJ5ZFMN8H6jtS8aTIRlA2
Venturini, Edward D, director. The Headless Horseman.
1922.
"Great Star" flag of pre-Civil War USA