Washington Irving: The Alhambra His inspiration to write the tales

by

 Katja Hartmann

Inhalt

1. Preface 3

2. Introduction 3

3. The Life of Washington Irving 4

4. The Alhambra 6

5. Irving′s Motivation to Write the Tales 7

6. Conclusion 11

7. Literature 12

1. Preface

Washington Irving was the first among American writers to obtain universal recognition abroad, he was the first true literary artist and the earliest "classic". It is Washington Irving who belongs the honour of successfully developing a native literature in works which still preserve their freshness, their delicacy, and their charm. To the inspiration of native themes, Irving owed much of his ample success.

Irving enjoyed visiting different places and a large part of his live he spent in Europe, particularly England, France, Germany and Spain. He often wrote about the places he visited. This piece of work deals especially with one of Irving′s most famous books, The Alhambra, a great Moorish castle in Granada, Spain. The main interest here will be his life which was too interesting, influential and lively to ignore and Irving′s motivation to write The Tales about The Alhambra.

2. Introduction

Washington Irving earned his reputation as a major author by creating the short story. Later authors learned from and fashioned their short stories after his works. Irving was not boastful about his works. Instead, he had this to say, "If the tales I have furnished should prove to be bad, they will at least be found short".

Irving′s early works set an example for humorous writing, which later became an important part of American literature. In addition, Irving helped establish the short story as a popular literature for the United States.

He also had a way of combining folklore with romanticism in his literary works. His contributions helped to create America′s romantic literary movement.
Under the pseudonym Diedrich Knickerbocker Washington Irving wrote A History of New York (1809), perhaps America′s first great book of comic literature. Dietrich Knickerbocker was supposed to be an eccentric Dutch-American scholar. The name Knickerbocker was later used to identify the first American school of writers, the "Knickerbocker Group", of which Irving was a leading figure.¹
The book became part of New York folklore, and eventually the word "Knickerbocker" was also used to describe any New Yorker who could trace one′s family to the original Dutch settlers.

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1 http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap3/irving.html