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W. Irving's style

-    Humour - it's not what he says, but how he says It

-    Exaggerates with a straight face

-    Makes ironie remarks

-    Says the opposite of what he means

-    Uses long sentences and many words of Latin derivation

-    Exaggerates grandly the seriousness of situations

W. Irving embracesthe spirit of the new Romantic movement

-    An emphasis upon emotion

-    A great interest in the picturesque elements of the past

-    Enthusiasm about portraying national life and character

-    Drew from German literaturę for the suggestion of legends

-    Master of description (sights, colors, sounds, feelings)

-    Creator of an atmosphere indicating mystery and evil

Rip Van Winkle

Forerunner of Romanticism

-    Rip - a man of naturę

-    Supernatural phenomena

-    The genre used (legend)

-    Nostalgia for the past

-    Concern for individual freedom

-    Love for the beauty of the natural landscape

-    Rip starts a certain tradition of American heroes - the counter-hero (negative but we like him)

James Fenimore Cooper

His works

-    "The Pilot', 1823-a sea novel

-    "Precaution”, 1820 - a dynastie novel of manners, political satire and allegory

-    "The Spy", 1821 - about a secret agent Harvey Birch, who spied upon the British during the Revolutionary War (Cooper's 1* successful novel)

-    "Leatherstocking Senes" - 5 novels, uniquely American, with a frontier setting, including Indians as characters and the westward migration as the social background (American frontier of 1740 - 1804).

Tales

-    Each incoming ware displaces the earlierthe ongoing and inevitable ware of settlers is seen not only as gains, but also as losses; deep tensions between the lone individual and society, etc.

"Leatherstocking Tales”

-    Based on history; fuli of action, danger, escapes, brave deeds; arrival ofthe l^łt Whites as scouts, soldiers, traders and frontiersmen; the coming of poor, rough settler families.