Washington Irving’s Writing And The Construction Of “the American Spirit”

The literary creation of Washington Irving(1783-1859) to some extent embodies and promotes the construction of the “National Spirit” of the United States. Generally speaking, “National Spirit” is the national belief and identity of a sovereign nation. It is cohesive and marks the nation’s internal unity and integration. It is reflected as the people’s highly self-determination and loyalty for national unity, national dignity and national quality. It is also reflected as nation’s voluntary maintenance and responsibility for the rights and duties of the citizens. National Spirit is neither illusory imagination nor politicians’ beautiful words to control the people. It is a kind of cultural mentality rooted in people’s deep consciousness and relevant to social,historical and political changes. Each nation has its own cultural tradition and National Spirit. As an important cultural product, literature is an effective carrier to express and spread national values, continue historical memory and construct National Spirit. The great writers often keenly capture the unique spiritual demands, cultural psychology and values of its own people, and properly express these thoughts and ideas with their works. It is always shining with the brilliance of the national culture and National Spirit after years of eroding and baptizing. Therefore, both classics and literary masters take the compelling responsibility for inheriting the national culture, shaping the national image and constructing the National Spirit.Like other nations, the United States also has its own National Spirit. As a kind of cultural form, “the American Spirit” is the state of mind of the American’s deep consciousness, and is also a kind of voluntary consciousness to conform and realize the national belief, and to industriously identify the American culture. The American Spirit is not like water without source, but originated in American nation’s historical memory and cultural traditions. So to speak, the process of the American’s experiencing all kinds of hardships, settling on the North America, bravely struggling for nationalindependence and finally establishing a new bourgeois democratic country is also a process of constructing its own peculiar national character and National Spirit. In the meanwhile, another point should also be noticed is that as a reflection of the spirit of the age, the American Spirit is never invariable. Its meaning and connotation are constantly replenishing and getting rich with the development of society and era.Generations of American writers are not only the creators of the native literature and the presenters of the national image, but also play the irreplaceable role in the process of the constructing of the American cultural tradition and the American Spirit.Washington Irving, highly honored as “the Father of American Literature”, is an important forerunner among the numerous writers.As an outstanding representative of the first generation of the American writers born after the foundation of the U.S.A., Irving grew up together with the States. He witnessed the latter’s great changes from small to big, from weak to powerful. He is not only a witness of the unrestly historical transition period, but also an active participant. The unique geographical and cultural environments of the States cultivate and nourish Irving’s national and native consciousness, enabling him to shoulder the historical responsibility for promoting the rising of the American Spirit. The subject matter of Irving’s works seems various, and their contents and styles are quite different from one another, but whether they records the history of New York, describes the historical sites and village in the Old World, or presents the early pioneers saga and the culture and customs of the Indian tribes, “the American Spirit”, as the core theme always runs through them. Throughout his life, Irving is constantly exploring the connotation of the American Spirit, endeavoring to weave all his hope and vision of the country into literary works, and interpreting the American Spirit with his writing.Firstly, the promoting role that Irving plays in the construction of the American Spirit embodies in propelling the renewal of the literary institution. In 1776, the announcement of “The Declaration of Independence” marked the nation’s getting rid of British governing and gaining independence. The new nation needs to establish a new cultural identity and National Spirit. Changes in literary theme and content inevitably need appropriate literary institution to correspond. Irving’s contribution in the construction of the American literary institution is not only reflected in theinnovation of the literary form such as leading the romantic literary trend and creating the Irvingesque “fictional sketch”, but also embodied in the breakthrough practice in the literary external form involving opening the new era of the professional writing. In addition, the more important thing is that during the process of renewing the literary institution, Irving finds a more proper way to write American history and reality,express the American emotions, and reflect the American cultural identity and the National Spirit.Secondly, as a voluntary consciousness to confirm and realize the national belief and to industriously identify the American culture, the construction of the National Spirit must be based on the establishing of the national cultural identity. As an important writer standing on the turning point of the history, Irving is clearly aware that for the still-young America, in order to construct a brand-new national image and National Spirit, the most important task should be to construct a unique American cultural identity. Although the Anglo-Saxon Protestant culture originated from England has occupied the dominant position in the field of American culture for a rather long time, American culture, after all, is not a simple transplantation of British culture. The grandly and magnificently geographical environment, Indian primitive culture and the variously cultural traditions brought by the settlers and immigrants from other European countries determine that American cultural identity has never been single and fixed, but a constructing process under historical, social, political and economical factors. This multivariate, dynamic and complex process promotes the continuous updating of the American culture and the American Spirit, and broadens the literary vision of the American writers represented by Irving. In the meanwhile, it also provides these American writers with endless creation materials and inspiration sources as well as the broad space of the artistic imaginations.Thirdly, Irving’s role in promoting the construction of the American Spirit is also embodied in his European subject writing. After the Second American-British War, the territory area of the United States expanded dramatically and its economy grew rapidly.The growth in wealth hastened the promptly bulging of the free economy,individualism and utilitarianism. To avoid a divided and fractious fate, the America must construct the overall national spirit conforming to the era requirement andrepresents the national belief and cultural identity. For America which is composed of settlers and immigrants from European countries, European culture(especially British culture) has always been the important cornerstone of American culture. To construct the American spirit can not do without absorption and reference to the European cultural traditions. In this sense, Irving’s 17-year travel to Europe also can be regarded as a root-seeking travel. To return the European tradition, to take the social life of the European countries such as England and Spain as writing materials is not simply a complete acceptation of their culture and life modes, but a strategic choice, a re-recognition of the American culture, a revival of the potentially historical factors in the aesthetic consciousness. Its fundamental purpose is to enrich and present the new American Spirit in retrospect, reflection, overlooking and inspiration.Lastly, Irving’s promoting role in the construction of the American Spirit is also embodied in his Western subject writing. In Irving’s literary world, although the Western works has for a long time not received enough attention of the readers and critics, it is still a very important component, because for such a nationality which was born in the wilderness as America, the western wilderness is its eternal “Spiritual Home”. In his Western works, Irving does not only depict the splendid, pure and graceful natural landscape, show the enterprising and optimistic spirituality of the explorers, but also describes his own safari experience into the western prairies. These works provides the world with an intuitive and clear perspective to understand the American society and the American Spirit. In the process of returning the wilderness and approaching the nature, Irving personally feels the power and charm of the natural wilderness, thus generates the consciousness of protecting the wilderness and cherish the nature. Gradually, he is aware that the meaning of life lies not in conquering and possessing but in the harmonious co-existence between the subject and the world. Only to give up the plunder and interest-demand for the nature and the “Other”, poetically inhabit on the vast land of North America, the Americans can get the freedom of mind and the harmony of life. Only in this way, the promise of liberty, equality and happiness made in The Declaration of Independence can be finally fulfilled, and this is the essence of the construction of the American Spirit.In conclusion, it can be seen that in his life Irving is persistently using hisoutstanding literary talent to propel the construction of the American literary institution and cultural identity, expressing American emotions, writing American nation’s peculiar history and reality, describing the fabulous scenery on the North American land. This process is not only the literary interpretation of the American Spirit, but the finding of a feasible way for the human beings to get out of the plight and to realize the double liberation of self and the world. Thus, in the early literature reflecting the American Spirit and the national psychological structure, “the Father of American Literature”, Irving’s writing has made a crucial contribution to promoting the construction of the American Spirit.