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- Title
Changing Regimes: The Case of Rip Van Winkle.
- Authors
Pearce, Colin D.
- Abstract
The author attempts to interpret the short story "Rip Van Winkle," by Washington Irving. His interpretation of the story divided into three parts. First, the conceit of having the main character named Rip Van Winkle sleep for twenty years through the transition from British colonial to independent republican America allows Irving to play the part of friendly critic of the American regime. Second, Irving is presenting in a literary form a kind of philosophy of history wherein the stages of the progress of society from the earliest to the most advanced are discernible. Finally, Irving's purpose in the story is to remind the importance of the past to any community's self-understanding and especially the importance of remembering the community's forgotten progenitors and its heroic origins.
- Subjects
RIP Van Winkle (Short story : Irving); SHORT story (Literary form); VAN Winkle, Rip (Fictional character); LITERARY characters; IRVING, Washington, 1783-1859; INTERPRETATION (Philosophy); HERMENEUTICS; PHILOSOPHY of history; UNITED States history
- Publication
Clio, 1993, Vol 22, Issue 2, p115
- ISSN
0884-2043
- Publication type
Article