I mean, seriously. Rip Van Winkle wanders off into the woods for some peace and quiet and maybe to shoot an innocent woodland creature or two, gets slammed with some ancient Dutchmen, and wakes up twenty years later to the advent of an entirely new nation. Go figure.
While Irving's short story relates especially to the development of a new American Literature, it also speaks to the relative speed with which the nation itself developed, as well as the mythology surrounding that development. I remember reading the story for the first time in its entirety as a sophomore in high school and for the most part disregarding it as nonsense: I was still a little too enamored by European Literature to be too impressed with what I considered a canon far less important to me in my literary discovery. It's strange how perspectives can change so greatly. While I'm still not as in love with Irving as I am with Chaucer or Boccacio or Dante (all deeply influential in the development of literature in Europe, and thereby influential in the development of an American literature by default) I can see his influence in the later literature of the Americas -- short stories, in particular -- and appreciate the form of his writing a great deal more.
His work also provides a commentary on personality and humanity as a whole. Rip Van Winkle, Irving's less-that-exemplary layabout protagonist, nevertheless personifies the development of an American literary tradition more or less outside of the umbrella of Europe and particularly Great Britain. He's well-liked despite his numerous flaws (we would certainly critique his family management and personal discipline, or complete lack thereof) and somehow manages to maintain a particular and fairly important role in his society. What that role says about the role of American literature is debatable -- Rip is essentially socially useless. But it does own to the fact that, despite his uselessness, he is cherished. Perhaps this is what Irving wished for his new nations developing literature.
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I think this is an interesting post when dealing with looking at Rip as a metaphor for our American literature. I did not look at it like that and i hope thats not what he was getting at but it is interesting to look at. I also agree completely that he was making a point about how fast our culture was changing and by him only being asleep for twenty years and not recognizing a thing when he went back into town really demonstrates that. Overall i really liked this post and i enjoyed how it dug into the importance of our literature in relation to Europes.
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