The legend of Sleepy Hollow, Apuntes de Literatura inglesa

¡Descarga The legend of Sleepy Hollow y más Apuntes en PDF de Literatura inglesa solo en Docsity! THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW – WASHINGTON IRVING NARRATIVE STRATEGY First belonged to the oral tradition. We don’t know exactly who is the narrator. It’s difficult to know exactly who the responsible is. No credibility because of this mess (no narrator). The PostScript. Mr. Knickerbocker is the author of the postscript. He tells us that he heard this story (the one we just read) from a guy in Manhattan. Everyone who hears the story thinks he’s hilarious, except for one tall and dry-looking old dude. After everyone else has stopped laughing, the old guy asks what the moral of the story is. Knickerbocker -> first person narrator Geoffrey Crayon -> the narrator Who is the narrator, can she or he read minds, and, more importantly, can we trust her or him? Third person (Objective). The story of Ichabod Crane was written by a fake guy, listening to a fake old man, found by the fake author of The Sketch Book. • Diedrich Knickerbocker is our narrator. He supposedly wrote down the story. / Postscript. • The story was told to him in person by an old man. Oh, and this old man admits (in the postscript) that it’s a bit of a long tale. • The story was published in Geoffrey Crayon’s (another fictional guy) The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. (which, by the way, is really written by Irving under a pseudonym). By the time the story of Sleepy Hollow gets to us, it has one through a lot of second voices, and it’s something like an urban legend. With so many layers of removal, it’s tough to believe anything that is happening. Because the story is told in a third person objective point of view (i.e., he/she did this/that and I/we have no opinion about the matter), we’re even more distanced from the story. Instead of getting invested in the characters we feel more like an objective observer. Normally, this kind of narration would give us lots of facts to work with. It’s not the case here. Our narrator doesn’t even know what’s going on half the time. For example, he doesn’t know what Katrina says to Ichabod before he runs off: What passed at thid interview I will not pretend to say, for in fact I do not know. Something, however, I fear me, must have gone wrong. (1.57). What’s the effect of all this? We have a hard time figuring out the truth. HISTORICAL CONTEXT Post-Revolutionary War America When “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” was published, Irving’s America still has its baby face and was looking up to big brother Europe. Everything was fresh and new—so fresh that there was a heck of a lot of land to be settled, and people were starting to move westward to do just that. The American Revolution was Still on the brain, and everyone probably knew someone who know someone who fought in it. “Sleepy Hollow” is one of few stories in Irving’s Sketch (book that actually takes place in the United States) and it is not hard to see why. “Sleepy Hollow” just couldn’t have gone down anywhere else. “Hans van Ripper”: Dutch names; context of Dutch community. References to the colonial past. Dutch community in New York (first Europeans to colonize New York). “Manhattoes”: native Indians living in this area. (indigenous tribe the Manhattoes, which gave name to Manhattan Island and what has since become New York City). Ichabod was born at the end of the independence War. Possible reference to England and its colonial past. Line 15 (USA post-revolution) Irving is interested in the relationship between Europe and America. He’s well-painted in European ways. Establishment of Universal suffrage. Europe was a land of corruption meanwhile America was a fresh land. Irving doesn’t like the American politic system. He hesitates about the people who participate in the government, he thinks they have no knowledge. Democracy of individuals, no de masas. Content This passage is located at the end of the story. There are two possible interpretations in the first three paragraphs: the first is that Ichabod has disappeared because of supernatural means. He has been spirited away by a ghost (supernatural interpretation). The second is that he left town because he was afraid of ghosts (supernatural interpretation). In this second interpretation, he left town because he was afrai of ghosts and hr was ashamed because of Katrina. This is a more realistic or practical interpretation. He was sad because of the discussion with Katrina (rejection). We can see this magical interpretation in paragraphs 1 and 3, and the realistic interpretation in paragraph 2. Ichabod is the stranger, he’s deeply affected by this atmosphere of imagination and superstition. He was different from the Dutch community. The community was formed by old farmers. He did intellectual activities. In Dutch community, people had bounded shapes. However, Ichabod was long and thin. Ichabod was starving, he had no money nor food. The members of the community used to be fat, like animals, but Ichabod was different. He is affected by superstition, common in Dutch community. He is represented as an example of a stranger. Influenced by this world of magic. The other characteristic is that he is a suitor of Katrina because her father is wealth and has a lot of food. He is also very materialistic. Bron Bones is the antagonist of Ichabod, especially concerning Katrina’s love. Bron is more connected with the realistic version of the story. He is specially connected with this part of the story. He is also somehow connected the other part. In Ichabod we find a contradictory character. Brom Bones uses the world of magic. He uses the realistic part to play a trick on