LITR 4232: American Renaissance
University of Houston-Clear Lake
Student Presentation, spring 2001

Reader: Sheila Newell

Recorder: Kelly Keenan

23 January 2001

"Rip Van Winkle"

"Legend of Sleepy Hollow"

The Last of the Mohicans (ch 1-3)

Focusing on Objective 2: Romanticism and the related style of the sublime, the presentation began with "Rip Van Winkle," pages 1353 and 1346, where Irving establishes the spirituality of nature as Rip muses over the beauty of the Kaatskill Mountains around him. It is a sublime scene as Rip drifts off to sleep, then wakes to a setting sun casting shadows and suggesting a wild and lonely wilderness. In Irving’s "Postscript" on 1353 he writes about how the Indians considered the mountains to be "the abode of spirits"--hence the spirits that invited him to drink the special potion?

Moving on to the next passage, The Legend of Sleep Hollow, Irving introduces another side of spirituality--fear. On page 1372 the audience learns that the "old country wives [. . .] maintain to this day that Ichabod was spirited away by supernatural means." There is a biblical story of a man miraculously taken away into heaven without dying, therefore adding the spiritual element to this story. However there is more here: regardless of the spiritual nature of the woods, there is also an element of fear in the dark wilderness, and the dark wilderness adds to another side of spirituality—the unanswerable.

The last passage we examined was from The Last Of The Mohicans, chapters 1-3. On pages 24 and 31-32, Cooper introduces spirituality as part of nature. David the namesake of Israel’s King David sings the psalms as part of his ministry. He joins our traveling party in the wilderness as the spiritual representative for the European/white man. However, Chingachgook does not recognize The Bible as the only truth of God; the wilderness speaks God’s truth, as well.

In our class discussion Dr. White equated the sublime with the bridge that became a place of superstition. Another classmate reminded us that the story is told in a safe place therefore making the sublime aspect (beauty/fear) acceptable. Relating the sublime/spirituality part of nature to current aspects of life several classmates mentioned personal experiences that were not only beautiful/spiritual but fearful as well. Several current movies were mentioned as a way of introducing the sublime/spiritual nature aspect of Romanticism: Dances With Wolves, Snow White, Pocahontas, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Last of the Dog Men, and Black Robe.