Narrative Disruption as Declaration of Dependence: Nonhuman Agency and Narrative Repetition in “Rip van Winkle”

Abstract

Rip van Winkle’s prolonged slumber atop the Catskills in Washington Irving’s titular story features a narrative disruption suspending human agency and commencing nonhuman agency. Rip’s narrative repetition is both a declaration of human dependence on an interactive network of cross-species actants and an establishment of anthropocentric mastery over past passivity. The conflict between human reliance and psychological superiority, this article argues, is Irving’s buried truth within the story.

Opsomming

Rip van Winkel se uitgerekte slaap op die Kaatskillberge in Washington Irving se gelyknamige verhaal handel oor ʼn narratiewe ontwrigting wat menslike bemiddeling staak en niemenslike bemiddeling begin. Rip se narratiewe herhaling is beide ʼn verklaring van menslike afhanklikheid van ʼn  interaktiewe netwerk van bemiddelaars oor spesies heen, en ʼn vestiging van antroposentriese beheer oor die passiwiteit van die verlede. Hierdie artikel voer aan dat die konflik tussen menslike vertroue en sielkundige meerderwaardigheid  die waarheid is wat Irving in die verhaal versteek het.