WASHINGTON IRVING AND HIS DUTCH-AMERICAN HERITAGE AS SEEN IN A HISTORY OF NEW YORK, THE SKETCH BOOK, BRACEBRIDGE HALL, AND TALES OF A TRAVELLER (FOLKLORE)

This study investigates Washington Irving\u27s use of Dutch language, literature, and popular culture, set in a historical Dutch-colonial context, in the light of their European ancestry and with the aid of Dutch sources. For the first time, the source of the Knickerbocker History\u27s title page motto is identified as the Spiegel by Jacob Cats, an immensely popular seventeenth-century Dutch poet. The motto\u27s subject is truth; its contrast between light and dark develops as that of reason and imagination. This contrast is maintained throughout the Knickerbocker canon. Chapter One analyzes the function of the motto\u27s main elements as Irving manipulates them for his satire. Chapter Two provides an original identification of the History\u27s Van Twiller motto as another borrowing from Cats\u27s Spiegel, in which the contexts provide themes for that era and beyond. The motto announces the History\u27s contrast between silence and sound, becomes a focal point of low comedy, and sets the stage for internal strife and warfare between the seventeenth-century colonies. It also establishes the young colony as a bucolic Eden and, like the title page motto, underscores Knickerbocker\u27s nostalgia. Chapters Three and Four analyze the History\u27s incidents of Dutch colonial customs and folk beliefs. Parallel Dutch lore illustrate that Irving\u27s Hudson Valley culture is basically Old World Dutch. These incidents serve Irving\u27s comic intent or support his major themes. For example, the Dutch St. Nicholas is transformed into a New Netherland deity, a counterpart of the ancient gods that populate Irving\u27s mock epic. The eventual blending of diverse customs and folk beliefs depicts the genesis of an American popular culture, which in part consists of Irving\u27s fiction. Chapter Five similarly analyzes Rip Van Winkle, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, The Storm-Ship, Dolph Heyliger, and Wolfert Webber. Although their focus is Hudson Valley Dutch popular culture, each of these literary folk tales presents a realistic theme. Three appendices list and explain Irving\u27s use of Dutch language, popular culture, and names in the Knickerbocker canon. This study demonstrates Irving\u27s greater familiarity with Dutch than the little with which he has been previously credited