The Father of America,George,Washington,n literature,Irving,作家介绍及作品选读 I. Washington Irving Life Works Style Comment II. The Sketch Book Rip Van Winkle The Legend of Sleep Hollow,Life Experience,Washington Irving was born on April 3rd, 1783 in New York City, New York. Born with strong preference for literature, he read widely and wrote a lot of poems, essays, though he become a lawyer after schooling. By the time when he was 23 years old (1809),he had roamed England, Holland, France Italy and Hudson Valley.,Life Experience,After collecting sufficient original materials for writing and a good practice of editing a journal ,he formed his particular political idea and writing style. He began his researches on A History of New York , written under the name of Diedrich Knickerbocker. A History of New York came out in 1809, thus won him wide popularity.,Life Experience,Washington Irving was engaged to marry Matilda Hoffmann, who died on April 26th, 1809 at the age of 17. Irving never became engaged, or married anyone. In 1815 Irving sailed again for England. Thus began to remain abroad for 17 years.,Life Experience,He settled down in a small village and began the writing of The Sketch Book The book appeared serially in the years of 18191820. It established Irvings reputation at home and abroad and designated the beginning of American Romanticism. Washington Irving died in Tarrytown, New York on November 28, 1859.,List of Works,graceful, refined, fluent and dignified sentimental, romantic,Style,The first American author to win international recognition The first prose stylist of American romanticism In his Sketch Book appeared the first modern American short stories. His essays are models of perfect English.,comments,the first American (true) literary writer， American man of letters American writer to earn his living solely by his pen the first to write history and biography as entertainment,the first belletrist in American literature, writing for pleasure at a time when writing was practical and for useful purposes - belletrist n. 纯文学作者,Irving created humor by the way he said: 1）He delighted in making ironic remarks which say just the opposite of what he meant. 2） He used dignified words to produce a half-mocking effect. 3） He was also fond of exaggerating the seriousness of situations.,He not only provided a young nation with humorous, fictional accounts of the colonial past but also helped create an American mythology which is made up of stories about the American past so widely read as to be familiar to nearly every American,His use of the gothic looks forward to Edgar Allan Poe. “the first literary messenger sent from the new world to the old world”（萨克雷语） “the American Goldsmith”,His stories based on the legends of Europe and gave his readers a glimpse of a world beyond their own shores. His colorful legends of the Hudson River Valley helped awaken American to an appreciation of their nation and its native literature. The short story as a genre in American literature probably began with Irvings The Sketch Book.,short story,a prose narrative that is brief in nature also has many of the same characteristics of a novel including characters, setting and plot.,However, due to length constraints, these characteristics and devices generally may not be as fully developed or as complex as those developed for a full-length novel.,The short story usually deals with a single episode and often a single character. The short story frequently also lacks denouement（结局）, ending instead at its climax.,many authors well known for it including Edgar Allan Poe O Henry Ernest Hemingway Poe first theorized on the structure and purpose of the short story.,Reference: Mark Twain also is called the Father of American Literature the true Father of American Literature,Washington Irving The Father of American literature,论文选读： 驳华盛顿 欧文是“美国文学之父”说 马立 南京晓庄学院外国语学院 安徽文学/2010年/第3期,？,Rip Van Winkle,(1) Introduction (2) Rip Van Winkle: the protagonist (3) The plot (4) The theme,Adapted from a German folktale The story is set in the years before and after the American Revolutionary War. It views a striking contrast between the independent United States and the former British colony from the eye of a native inhabitant after his 20-year sleep.,Introduction,Rip Van Winkle lives in a peaceful village where nagging from his wife is the most unbearable trouble. He is neither diligent nor responsible for the support of his family but gets on well with his fellow villagers owing to his well-oiled (讨好的)disposition(性格特征).,Rip Van Winkle: the protagonist,a villager of Dutch descent lives in a nice village at the foot of New Yorks Catskill Mountains an amiable man whose home and farm suffer from his lazy neglect he is loved by all but his wife,Rip Van Winkle: the protagonist,Character: good-natured, well-oiled, carefree, happy-go-lucky（无忧无虑，乐天派）, showing no inter