Scanty Anecdotes: Collections of Literary Histories and National Character in Washington Irving’s The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon

Abstract

Abstract:The following essay takes up Washington Irving’s Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon as a study in the production of national character. Crayon’s tour provided occasion to examine the techniques that shaped his sense of Englishness, including his sense of its national character as a long-lasting structure, preserved in its literary traditions. His survey crystalized in an extended scrutiny of antiquarianism, both in its scholarly application, which treated literary texts as specimens of national tradition, and in its more popular expressions, which appeared in activities such as literary tourism, festivals, and ceremonies. In that respect, the sketches became a series of experiments in what Crayon could and could not accomplish, so long as he sought it in literary texts designated as artifacts or remnants. Irving’s multiple revisions, including his rearrangements of the various episodes, helped reinforce the more searching qualities of Crayon’s observations and remarks. It was critical that the book suggested possibilities, without ever settling on any definitive organization. For Irving meanwhile, the Sketch Book remained part of a more persistent professional concern over how to approach the still highly unsettled history of his own nation. To that purpose, I also bring in material from among Irving’s later writings, including select passages from Irving’s Tour on the Prairies. Although limited in scope, a review of those passages helps illustrate Crayon’s remarkable appeal for Irving, who continued to make use of the celebrated persona, even as he grew more forthright about its limitations.