Irving, Washington - Jenifer S. Banks (essay date 1990)
Jenifer S. Banks (essay date 1990)
SOURCE: “Washington Irving, the Nineteenth-Century American Bachelor” in Critical Essays on Washington Irving, edited by Ralph M. Aderman, G. K. Hall & Co., 1990, pp. 253-65.
[In the following essay, Banks analyzes Irving's conflict between individual freedom and social responsibility as evidenced in his writings about women and his life.]
The theme of growing up and accepting adult responsibility is central to a study of American literature; and relationships between men and women are a central element in this maturing, as such different critics as Leslie Fiedler and Judith Fetterley have shown. Washington Irving's “Rip Van Winkle” is often cited as a peculiarly American example of flight from this responsibility. Fetterley has noted that in fact Irving borrowed this story from German folklore and set it in an American scene; but among his most significant additions is the character of Dame Van...
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