Washington Irving was one of the most famous American authors of the nineteenth century. While he is primarily remembered for short stories such as “Rip van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” he also penned an extensive biography of George Washington.
Q. Is Washington Irving a transcendentalist?
Washington Irving (April 3, 1783 – November 28, 1859) was an American short-story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century.
Table of Contents
- Q. Is Washington Irving a transcendentalist?
- Q. What are two important facts about Washington Irving?
- Q. Is Washington Irving a dark romantic?
- Q. Why do you think the gothic element was so attractive to romantic writers such as Irving Poe and Hawthorne?
- Q. What is Washington Irving’s writing style?
- Q. What were the major themes of dark romanticism?
- Q. In what ways can Poe be considered a dark romantic?
- Q. Why is Poe considered a romantic period author?
- Q. What era did Poe write in?
- Q. What has driven Poe into depression?
Q. What are two important facts about Washington Irving?
Fun Facts Friday: Washington Irving
- He is named after George Washington and was present at the first presidential inauguration in 1789.
- Irving’s book Knickerbocker’s History of New York (1809), which he wrote as Diedrich Knickerbocker, he coined the word “knickers”.
- Washington Irving was the first to describe New York as “Gotham City”.
Q. Is Washington Irving a dark romantic?
There are two subgenres of the movement, which are the light and the dark romanticism. The light romanticism is not an often used term to describe authors like Washington Irving, whereas the dark romanticism is more used term especially for those like Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville.
Q. Why do you think the gothic element was so attractive to romantic writers such as Irving Poe and Hawthorne?
Gothic horror was a sub-genre of Romanticism, as the Romantic movement sought to reverse the Enlightenment’s focus on reason and emphasized sensation and emotion instead. Irving, Poe, and Hawthorne, among other Romantic writers, found this element attractive because it could provoke a strong sensation in their readers.
Q. What is Washington Irving’s writing style?
In Rip Van Winkle, Washington Irving shows his writing style by using humor, imagery, and satire (making gentle fun of something).
Q. What were the major themes of dark romanticism?
Dark Romantics focus on human fallibility, self-destruction, judgement, punishment, as well as the psychological effects of guilt and sin. Authors who embrace this genre include Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, and Emily Dickinson.
Q. In what ways can Poe be considered a dark romantic?
Dark Romanticism stories are usually bleak, dark (obviously), scary, eerie, and have a sad or dreary tone to them. All of these are characteristics of Dark Romanticism. Edgar Allen Poe is considered a Dark Romanticist. He has written many things including The Raven, The Tell-Tale Heart, and The Pit and the Pendulum.
Q. Why is Poe considered a romantic period author?
Edgar Allen Poe was one of the most influential and prolific writers of the Romantic Period. The Romantics were reacting against the Enlightenment, which was a literary (among other things) movement concentrating on rationality and reason as the most valuable tool for humans to understand the world.
Q. What era did Poe write in?
Romanticism
Q. What has driven Poe into depression?
Poe suffered from recurrent depression, suggesting a bipolar disorder, as well as alcohol and drug abuse, which in fact led to his death from complications related to alcoholism. Various hypotheses were put forward, including Wernicke’s encephalopathy.
