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Strange, I was under the impression that American Literature has a very marked identity. I wouldn't know what it is, it's just that I know American Literature courses are offered at many major universities across the world, mostly dealing with the American Dream, some selections of African slave trade literature (Harriet Beecher Stowe comes to mind), suffrage (very different from suffrage in the UK and abroad), the Great Depression (Steinbeck & Co.) and so on. A lot of very American literature deals with the American government's policy of assimilating ethnicities, which you won't find in Canadian or British literature as much.

This identity is quite new compared with British literature, which spans back to the 16th century or so, but American literature does cover awide body of text for about...150 years? Give or take a bit. It's not young. There's no exact 'American-ness', or 'British-ness', or 'Australian-ness', but there are a lot of common themes, which may not be common now, but still affect what's being written because writing doesn't exist in a vacuum.

And, I mean, there's 'Canadian literature' for heaven's sake! At least 75 years' less of written works, and we're still insisting that we have an identity that's closely related to wide spaces filled with nothing.

I took a class last year that really changed my opinions on the American identity. It discussed the American culture from the very beginning into modern-day.

Yes, we do have a distinct American culture. It's one that isn't quite so apparent when you're looking at things that you're actually living through, but when you look back.. yeah.

Of course, there's the concept of the American dream. That's been around for ages, and part of the American dream has roots in the Pilgrims, the settlers, everyone. The American Dream is more than just rags-to-riches-- it's the ability to reinvent yourself like Bob Dylan, like anyone who left home for a new chance. You can move and become somebody new. You don't have to always be the same person.

In accordance with this, we've always had a fascination with the individual, and, especially, the outsider. This has its roots in the very nature of the first Americans- outsiders who came here searching for their city on a hill. But, looking through all of our literature, you find the common theme of the outsider-- Hester Prynne, Gatsby (he is an outsider, for all his pretentions), McMurphy, Yossarian. People who have a different look on things, and especially (perhaps minus Gatsby, who seems powerless) people who are detached enough to say "This is not right." Similarly, whether you like activist judges or not, you can't deny that most American movements have been grounded in a few outstanding figures, and most take roots in subcultures or races that have either been excluded (african-americans) or purposefully developed a different mindset (hippies).

Then, looking back, we've always been very pragmatic. Look at the inventions that were definitely American inventions-- just about all of them have been for purpose. I can't remember the exact examples my teachers used, but there was definitely some discussion of Ben Franklin. Our literature also reflects this-- we were big on that whole 'self-improvement' thing even back in the Colonial era.

We did follow the Romantic/Rational trends, but Transcendentalism is an American philosophy. The idea that you can achieve spiritual accomplishment through trusting in your own judgement and intuition, even through rational thought about philosophy, is an extention of the American focus on the individual-- and pragmatism, too.

I believe that when talking about America it is very hard to point out a specific culture, as there is none. Generally, though, America does have its own culture. After all, where potato chips, and corn and even things such as a Philly cheese stake not originated here? Football for instance, is strictly American. It is even referred to in other countries as 'american football.' Literacy, on the other hand seems a bit vague to me. It seems that American English is the language that has most fallen prey to slang. We accept it into our language and literacy easier then any other language. I myself am an immigrant, but I have spent most of my life in Philadelphia. Much of that time I spent reading. It seems to me that, although English is not originally our language, but another country's, we seem to have made it into a language of its own. American.

Thanks for the link.

And then I was just thinking about the whole idea of pioneering the west, and the unique Romanticism that has been shaped there. For instance, if you read The Lilies of the Field by William E. Barrett, the book begins by talking about a modern "legend".

That brings up another thing-- we constantly compare to Eurpean literature, though I suppose it has to do with western literature.