2. Irving's German Forerunner: Johann Karl August Musäus

The Gothic Writer

Washington Irving's (1783-1859) contribution to American literature is very hard to underestimate. He went down in history as one of the first American folklorists and Gothic writers. It was he who gave America its background, its tales and legends. Irving handles the usual scary Gothic devices and moods in a humorous, tongue-in-cheek, eye-winking way and in the end usually suggests an explanation for the apparently supernatural phenomena.

Being not a mere writer of horror stories he adopted many European myths and legends and created new American archetypes. It is in this category that Irving achieves significant stature, though his talents in this respect were not entirely original, for he himself admitted the German romantics. 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow', for instance, was probably based on a German legend by Karl Musäus (1735-1787). The Spanish legends are retellings of old-Spanish folklore, resurrected by Irving in the course of his casual puttering in Spanish archives during his stay in Spain. He explains the hold of these ancient legends on him in a letter quoted by Irving’s nephew and literary executor, Pierre Irving, in the preface to “Spanish papers”: "These old Morico-Spanish subjects have a charm that makes me content to write about them at half price. They have so much that is high-minded, and chivalrous, and quaint, and picturesque, and at times comic about them."

As a great writer Irving created several lasting folklore characters. Among the most memorable of them are:

- melancholy young man of sensibility;

- sweet young ladies;

- shrewish wives;

- stern fathers;

- and talkative innkeepers.

Irving’s favorites scenes are usually to do with country roads, coaches, inns, tavern meals, bedchambers and nightcaps.

With these folklore and Gothic tales Irving helped to establish a pride in American’s past and in American’s settings. Also, he gave impetus to the Gothic tale in American letters – a form which was became a very strong part of American literary tradition as it extended to Poe, Hawthorne, Melville.

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Johann Karl August Musäus

born March 29, 1735, Jena, Saxony
died Oct. 28, 1787, Weimar

- was the son of a land judge. From 1754 to 1758 he studied Teology in Jena and then classic Philology. In 1763 he became Pagenhofmeister (private tutor) in Weimar and then in 1769 he was appointed by the duchess Anna Amalia as professor of the Weimar’s Gymnasia. From 1766 he was a literary critic of the “Complete German Library” where he reviewed approximately 350 modern Romances.

One of the greatest Musäus’s woks was his collection of German fairy tales, legends and sagas in 5 volumes. In it he managed to combine the different original folklore satiric elements.

Rübezahl – a mountain spirit,

the hero of many German legends

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Further Information

For a fuller biography of Washington Irving:

- http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/wirving.htm

- http://www.hudsonvalley.org/education/Background/abt_irving/abt_irving.html

For a fuller biography of Johann Karl August Musäus:

In English - http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?tocId=9054399
In German - http://www.netzwelt.de/lexikon/Johann_Karl_August_Mus%C3%A4us.html

About other German Gothic writers - http://www.pagedepot.com/thesicklytaper/GERMAN_GOTHIC.HTML

To learn more about Rübezahl - http://www.netzwelt.de/lexikon/R%C3%BCbezahl.html

To learn more about die Regentin Anna Amalia - http://www.welfen.de/anna.htm

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This site is a part of the course on American Literature taught at the Faculty of Foreign Languages, MSU

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