COOPER / IRVING: Basic Info Handout and Worksheet
INTRODUCTION
- Irving and Cooper: the first American writers who won recognition in Europe
- both preoccupied with the theme of the developing American identity, though Cooper focused on themes giving start to the Frontier/Western convention, while Irving explored first of all the colonial history and locality of New York
- both addressed themes of characteristic American features, the relationship with nature and history
- Irving preferred a high-quality style similar to discourses of British writers and a slightly ironic/satiric mode, while Cooper's style was quite extensively critisized (among others by Poe and Twain) because of its overabundance, unnecessary syntactic complexity and ill-matched pomposity; those attributes, however, make sense when inscribed in the tradition of historical romance, gothic novel and sentimental literary entertainment developing under the impact of those conventions
WASHINGTON IRVING
- did not invent new plots, but mostly relied on traditional folktales, especially Nordic and German; by reworking them in the American context, he pursued the typically Romantic desire to “go back to the roots” of culture and revive the romanticized history – however, as the colonial history of America lacked such a heritage, he replaced it with European stories
- his literary debut was preceded by a unique campaign: before he published his satiric history of NY as a historian Diedrich Knickerbocker, he put false press notes about the said historian as a missing person, and his landlord planning to publish the manuscript found in the scholar's abandoned room
- the person who ascribed the name “Gotham” to New York :)
''RIP VAN WINKLE'' THEMES
Politics:
- Colin D. Pearce interprets the story in political terms as an affirmation of the community's bonds with its past;
- Rip functions as a transitory figure linking the colonial and the independent American society, and pointing to the continuity of experience in order to fight the temptation to assume that the American identity starts together with the American state
- thus, memory and storytelling, the ever-living voices of the past, become a way to keep in touch with tradition while accepting the contemporary order; the awareness of one's own roots is the key to understanding the contemporary situation and historical progress; the awareness of the past may also impose some moderation on the contemporary strive for progress
How is the turn from the colonial to the independent America pictured in the story? (Relevant descriptions)
What has changed? How has the local community been affected by the political change?
Which reality - “before” or “after” - appears more attractive?
What is the significance of Rip's return for the community?
The Supernatural:
- the invocation to Woden at the beginning suggests that it is also a story about gods; the supernatural element romanticizes both landscape and history of America
- Pearce perceives Rip as a metaphysical mediator between the extremes of theology and rationalism (the supernatural hidden in the mountains vs. the sober, republican rationalism)
- the story contains several tropes typical of folktales concerned with interactions between humans and faeries
Identify as many fairy-tale / folktale motifs, as well as supernatural elements as you can.
Consider the function of the supernatural in the story: what forces are at work? Are they good / evil / neutral? How do they interact with mortals?
Nature and the “man of nature” trope:
- the realm of nature is contrasted with the colonial community; Rip, as an “ideological” outsider who hardly follows the ideals of hard work and prosperity, feels more at home there, hunting, than as a responsible, money-making citizen; while he questions those Puritan values, he reflects the American Romantic attachment to Nature as the source of enlightenment and spiritual transcendence
- Pearce underlines the archetypal quest pattern in the story: Rip steps into the Otherworld of Nature to undergo a mystical experience and find a new identity and a new place in the community; it is in the realm of Nature that he meets the “gods” who change his fate
- still, the “gods” themselves do not belong to Nature, but rather to History, so the Natural realm is not the main source of the supernatural – thus, the story is effected by the emerging American fascination with the philosophy of nature crucial in Romanticism, yet the main source of knowledge and change is the philosophy of history
What is Rip like? Is he a likable character?
Compare Rip's relationship with his community and with the realm of nature. How does Rip's social position change?
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
- appreciated first of all for formulating a new area of literary and artistic interest in the connections between American natural landscape, history and Native American heritage; a combination which opened the door towards the Western mythology
- though quickly reduced to school-reading materials, his novels remain sources of popular cultural and literary tropes (civilization/wilderness, the Frontier; Natty Bumppo as an archetypal Frontiersman); to a large extent responsible for coining the Wild West myth in Europe (compare, e.g., with Karl May)
THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS
- critical analyses of the novel focus, first of all, on the stereotypes about Native Americans and the problem of miscegenation/mongrelization (pejorative notions dealing with interracial sexual intercourses and racially mixed marriages, which in the 19th century were perceived as a potential threat to the natural order and inherent qualities of particular ethnic groups, especially white)
- generally, the novel is interpreted as reflecting the dominant social and ideological prejudice against racial mixing (affirmed by the death of Cora and Uncas and the survival of Alice and Duncan), but some critics see the novel's message as more complex
Native Americans stereotypes:
- Noble Savage (Uncas, Chingachgook) and Red Devil (Magua); a rationalization of Indians' repression as a historical necessity
- Jennifer Dyer sees Natty as a reflection and perpetuation of the white fascination with “Indianness,” gradually separated from Indians themselves and turned into an abstract concept available to and owned by the white as an affirmation of freedom, independence, sincere values of character and harmony with nature; hence Natty's continuous affirmation that he is “a man without a cross”
- the novel has been influenced by earlier captivity narratives (fictionalized or non-fiction reports about white settlers, and especially young women, kidnapped by Natives and forced to live among them; stories of that kind were very popular and fuelled both the fear of Native Americans as blood-thirsty savages and the romantic fascination with them)
Consider the first dialog between Natty and Chingachgook in terms of the comparison of races and reflection upon the interactions betwen them.
Why does Natty keep repeating that he is a “man without a cross”? Consider at least 3 contexts in which he does so.
Comment on the exchange between Cora and Duncan about the “evils worse than death” at the end of Chapter VIII – how can it be interpreted?
Uncas/Cora/Magua triangle: the issue of miscegenation
- Cora finally takes her fate, sexuality and desire into her own hands, which, unfortunately, means that she chooses death; still, she prevails over both Duncan – by following Magua, who wants to marry her; and Magua – by dying
- Old/New World contrast also in Alice and Cora's origins, Cora being New World to the core, still it is Alice who is going to bear children, not Cora (whose own background is mixed)
- the novel can be seen as motivated by a self-contradictory attitude towards racial mixing: on the one hand, it is something American to the core; on the other, according to Harry Brown, the Gothic aesthetics present in the novel pictures hybridity as grotesque, unnatural, exeggerated and infertile; the gothic background, therefore directs the inter-racial romance towards madness and chaos
Reflect upon the vocabulary used by Cooper and the overall style of the narration: is it realistic? expressive? picturesque? overdrawn? other? How does it effect you and your imagination? Support your opinion with examples.
Trace the dynamics of mutual relationships between Uncas, Cora and Magua.
Alice/Duncan/Cora triangle: a critique of the European heritage:
- Ian Dennis interprets Heyward as a chivalric, post-European hero alluding to Sir Walter Scott's romances and as such, ill-suited to the conditions of the New World
- he is a mock-heroic character, always brave, but never effective – he fights and loses, falls asleep during vigils, lets Hurons kidnap young ladies, makes wrong choices
- while the news about Cora's mixed background disturb him, his reaction does not have to seen as a reflection of the whole novel's message; while most critics read the novel as openly against miscegenation and affirming the natural separation between races, the interpretation of Duncan as a mock-heroic and generally criticized character undermines the impact of his attitude
Trace the way Duncan is presented in the novel; do you agree with this “mock-heroic” status? Support your opinion with examples.
If you are familiar with the whole plot, express your opinion on the novel's depiction of the relations between particular races, including as many ethnic groups as possible.
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