Irving, Washington (1783 - 1859) | Michael Davitt Bell (Essay Date 1980)
MICHAEL DAVITT BELL (ESSAY DATE 1980)
SOURCE: Bell, Michael Davitt. “Strange Stories: Irving’s Gothic.” In The Development of American Romance: The Sacrifice of Relation, pp. 77-85. Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press, 1980.
In the following excerpt, Bell discusses Irving’s humor and treatment of ambiguity as part of the American Gothic tradition.
It has long been a critical truism that the tradition of gothic romance played an essential role in the development of American fiction—far more so than in England, where the tradition originated. It is curious, then, that Irving, although the bulk of his fiction falls clearly within the gothic mode, has been accorded little recognition in this connection. Scholars concerned specifically with his work acknowledge and sometimes analyze his gothicism, but they do not generally concern themselves with his place in the larger American tradition....
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