European Influence on Early American Romanticism and the Rise of American Authors, Appunti di Letteratura Angloamericana I

Scarica European Influence on Early American Romanticism and the Rise of American Authors e più Appunti in PDF di Letteratura Angloamericana I solo su Docsity! 24 + 25 ottobre 2019 Letteratura angloamericana The nineteenth century As we move into the nineteenth century we see that Americans began to realise that even though they were now politically independent, they will not be yet culturally and artistically independent from Europe. In fact from a cultural point of view and particularly from a literary point of view they were very much under the influence of Europe because the majority of books which were read in the USA came from Europe and very often there were American reprints of English novels. So for a publisher it was much easier to publish an English novel than to take a risk on to be an unknown American author. American Romanticism is connected to the question of national identity so it is particularly conservant with a question of a national literature and a national art, the idea is that is almost a duty of an American artist to contribute to the cultural and artistic independence of the country. “The Hudson River school of painting”: it is the first American school of painting made of painters and they were called “The Hudson River school of painting” because they took inspiration from the wonderful natural beauty of the Hudson River Valley. They tried show to the beauty and impressiveness of the American landscape, so they painted scenes of huge and majestic landscapes with the typical colours of autumn, when parts of North America are red and gold. Their paintings were usually sunsets and warming lights and colours. Thomas Cole with “Distant View of Niagara Falls”, 1830: it was set in the Hudson River. We notice the contrast between the majestic size of the sea and by looking very closely we can see two tiny human figures who are actually Native American. It is an attach to use something which was uniquely American. We find this romanticised view of Native Americans as ideal subject for art. There is the sense of a land which is still to be settled and there are vaste areas of perfectly unspoiled nature with human presence. Sydney Smith with “Edinburgh Review”, 1820: he was a British literary critic who wrote a very prestigious review and in 1820 he published an editorial in which he lodged a really savage attack against the USA. In this article he claimed that American had nothing to show in the field of arts and knowledge and in this invective he asked a provocative question “And who, the wide world over, reads an American book?” So he intended to make a rhetorical question: no one does. Unfortunately for him, the timing fo this attack could not be worse because 1820 saw the publication ofthe book by an American writer called Washington Irving who became an international bestseller. WASHINGTON IRVING Washington Irving was born in New York and was the youngest of 9 children. When he was young he began to read and write. He modelled himself after Joseph Addison, who was his model and his journal “The Spectator” was considered the best example of English prose. As a kind of exercise, Irving tried to write article and pieces in the manner of “The Spectator”. 24 + 25 ottobre 2019 In 1804 he did the Grand Tour which was the tour of Europe and included key destinations like France, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands and it was essential part of a young man education and a rite of passage. The voyage reconnects with the European roots and the change for Americans to see the great worlds of arts. When he returned to the USA he found a magazine called “Salmagundi” together with his brother, William Irving and James Kirke Paulding. This magazine was meant to be satirical and spicy as the plate named Salmagundi. William Makepeace called Irving “the first ambassador whom the new world of letters sent to the old”. In 1815 Irving traveled again to Europe and he met Walter Scott, the author of popular poems at the time. MAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF_WASHINGTON IRVING’S SHORT STORIES 1. Accurate rendering of setting (Rip Van Winkle is set in the Hudson Valley and we can visualise the place in our mind, he paints with words) 2. Absence of didacticism (there are no heavy moral lessons) Unity of atmosphere and time (he always sets an atmosphere which is perfect for the time and the period) 8. Sense of humor and irony (something about important about American story and identity) 4. Rival characterisation (characters who are truth to life and believable) 5. Elegant prose style Washington Irving with “The History of New York”, 1809: it is not a real history book but it is a comic history of New York from the begging of the world to the end of the dutch dynasty. In particular it is the history of New York when it was a dutch colony (New Netherlands and the city was New Amsterdam). It remained Dutch in 1664 and then it became English. Because of this history, many people thought that New York was different from the rest of other colonies settled by the English and from New England settled by the puritans. Irving believed that the dutch period of New York was a kind of golden age when life was simpler. Diedrich Knickerbocker is the fictional author of this book and the great success of this book made that the name of Diedrich Knickerbocker became synonymous with “New York” and “newyorker”. The story is set in the past but with many allusions to recent events (for example there is a character who is a parody of Thomas Jefferson). lt was important to use American materials and Irving did it by emphasising the characteristics of different regions in the USA and we can find them in the contrast between New York and New England. This is the way you can define a country and a culture. 24 + 25 ottobre 2019 is important to pay attention to the informations Irving gives in the first part. Rip Van Winkle was the descendant of the people who fought when Peter Stuyvesant was the governor. He was described as a simple good-nature and obedient; he was a husband who was tormented by his wife and for this reason he was famous in the village, people felt pity for him; he was patient with children and even dogs liked him because they are very good at sensing a gentle nature that's why his best friend was a dog (his wife looks at the dog with an evil eye); he could spend all day fishing even he didn’t caught any fish but just for the pleasure of doing it not having a profit by doing it; he was actively on helping others as sign of generosity and friendship. (pag 15) One of his children is named Rip as him and looks very much as his father and has the same attitude. (pag 17-18) “He would rather starve on a penny than work for a pound” this is his philosophy (he doesn't want to work). A house which normally should be a place where someone relaxes and feels safe but for him it is a place of tension, contention and confusion. He uses a particular language “fresh volley” (verbal attack from his wife but volley literary means the charge of fire act) and “to draw off his forces” (when an army decides to withdraw). These two expressions show that Irving uses military imagery to suggest that house is a place of war and conflict. He takes refuge outside of the house and it is the only way he can escapes from his wife. pag 21-22-23-24) In 1760 George the Third came to the throne and it means the story takes place just a few years before the American Revolution, the dependence and the creation of the USA (we see it because of the portrait in the Inn where he goes). The Inn is an exclusively male environment, instead his house is both male and female. He describes the atmosphere of the men who sit at the Inn: they don't do anything particular but just enjoy each other company. They read and talk about old newspapers so they discuss about events that have already taken place and it means they are not interested in current events. Nicholas Vedder is the person who controls the group in the Inn and the patriarch of the village. He is a man of few words and expresses himself through his pipe. One of the characteristic of the village is that people spend the time by doing things very slowly. pag 25-26) Even the Inn is exclusively a male refuge and environment, it is evaded by Dame Van Winkle (his wife). There is a key moment because the only escape for him is to go into the woods, which means into the wilderness, so going out of the civilisation since his wife represents the duty, obligations, responsibility. pag 29-30-31) The landscape is as the same time beautiful and impressive but also wild and lonely, in a way it is a typical romantic landscape which requires a sense of majestic and danger. In pag 30 is where his avventure begins. It's the time of day where we are moving from a day to evening and this avventure begins just when Rip is thinking about his life and he is worried about what it will happen when he will go back. He hears a voice from someone calling his name and it prevents like a secret desire to go back, like this voice is a response to his desire and his secret thoughts. There is also a great emphasis on sensorial impressions (sounds, colours, light). (pag 32-33) This mysterious person is dressed the way Dutches used to dress. 5 24 + 25 ottobre 2019 The description of the landscape is important because this landscape will undergo the significant transformation. pag 36) There are words which emphasises something very unusual, out of the ordinary. (pag 37-38-39-40-41) The gentleman he sees looks like someone who spends his life outdoors, maybe he is a sailor. When he looks at this strange man, he reminds him of a painting of old Dutches which is a link between the colony and its origins in Holland, so Rip is confronted with a scene from the dutch past and the origins of the Dutch settlement of America. It is like a painting who comes to life magically because by looking at those people he metaphorically returns to the origins of dutch civilisation in America. If we think of the scene in the contest of Irving*s career we can say that with this scene he returns to America he had portrayed in his previous book “The History of New York”. These men are extremely serious and seem very sad so it's a very strange atmosphere. He drinks a flagon and falls asleep. First part ends. (pag 42) Begin of the second part about what happens to Rip when he wakes up. pag 44-45) He looks for his gun but instead he finds an old firelock into pieces. His first suspicious is that maybe the strange man replaced his gun with an old one. pag 46-47) When he wakes up he finds himself out of energy. On the way up there was a path without water but on the way down there is a torrent full of water. He is on a state of confusion and it is reflected in the landscape. Instead of an open space, there is a high impenetrable hole. pag 49-50-51-52) As he approaches the village he meets a lot of people who has never seen before so he doesn't recognise any of them even though before he knew everyone in the village. These people stare at him and touch their own chin because they find something strange in his appears. The children and the dogs are aggressive to him, while before not a single dog has ever been like this to him. The village is changed and larger. pag 54-55-56-57) He finds his house gone to decay and he sees a half-starved dog looking like his dog Wolf and he remembers is dog has forgotten him and that he is abandoned. He enters into his own house which before it was very loud but now it is dominated by silence. He goes to his other place (the Inn) and over the door there is painted a new name “The Union Hotel by Jonathan the Doolittle” (name by someone from New York, remembers about “The contrast” where there was a character named Jonathan. Jonathan Doolittle is from New England). There is naked pole with a red-night cap on it, symbol of a liberty cap, the symbol for the flag of America so we can see that when Rip was asleep there was the Revolution. lt means he fell asleep in colonial American and woke up in the USA. Instead of the general portrait of King George, they had modified the portrait (to save money -> irony to New England because they were obsessed with money) and had added a big sign in which there was written “General Washington”. (pag 60-62-63-64-65-66) Before the Civil War the two main parties there the democrats and the federalists. During the American fo dependence there were some colonists who chose to remain loyal to the king 24 + 25 ottobre 2019 and they were seen as spies. We know Nicholas Vedder is dead about 18 years ago. Even though it is comedy story, there are dark elements, in particularly in the loneliness of when he comes back and he thinks he is all alone in the world and no one knows him anymore and he can't understand what it is going on. In this way there is a crisis of identity and it brings up that the question of identity is central to this period of American culture as American went from a colony to be an independent nation. (pag 68-69-70-71-72-73) A girl passes with his child and we know she is Rip's daughter. She tells she was a child when she knew Rip shot himself or was carried away from the Indians. We know Rip left for 20 years. Ironic reference to New England because the daughter says his mother died because “She broke a blood-vessel in a fit os passion at a New England peddler” (a peddler was someone who sold things door to door and in American folklore a New England peddler was a stock character and was synonymous of someone who tried to sell you useless things and New England has the reputation to be obsessed with money). A woman asked where Rip has been for 20 years because she recognised him. He answers that 20 years have been to him as one night and the only person who can corroborate his story is the most ancient person in the village, Peter Vanderdonk. (pag 74-75-76-77-78-79-80) It is a legend that Peter Vanderdonk considered believable which is that every 20 years Hendrick Hudson (the first discover of the river and the country) came back to visit his explorations. After experiencing his identity crisis he regains in the community and becomes one of the most respectable patriarchs of the village and storyteller. Having nothing to do at home he goes to the Inn and he realises he is not under King George III anymore but he is a free citizen of the USA. Consequently he is now free and he is also free from his matrimony because his wife is dead (despotism). This means he is a free man in his private and public life (“out of the yoke” another despotism -> two types of despotism which are ended) and he is like reborn. Also the colonies are free from the rules of England. His story is representative to what happened to the whole country. He uses to tell the story to very man who comes to the Hotel and the old dutch inhabitants believes to these incredible stories.