Usable vs. abusable past. A reflection apropos of two (publication-politicization) dates in the history of U.S. literature

Abstract

Using as examples two radically different classic texts, Washington Irving’s “Rip Van Winkle” and Stephen Crane’s The red badge of courage, the article reflects on the scope (limits) of politicization of literary discourse in the guise of direct contextualization and radical recontextualization. In the analytical part, it is argued that both works belong properly to the realm of existential facticity (Faktizität) rather than historiographic factuality (Tatsächlichkeit).