Talk:American literature

Sci-fi section?
I'd like to suggest a greater section for science-fiction literature. Its one of the major American contributions to popular literature and deserves more than a couple sentences. Why not mention SF authors along with others in the piece?

I agree. Arthur C Clarke, Ray Bradbury and perhaps even Orson Scott Card merit a line here. Moabalan

NPOV?
I guess this is just an aside, but is the fact that Walt Whitman "manages not to sound like a crass egotist" really NPOV? That's how he always came off to me, to tell the truth. Also, although I guess the "literary value" could be disputed, but I'm surprised not to see Stephen King listed among more recent American writers. I've never personally read any of his books, but they've been undeniably popular. Of course, as the previous writer(s) says, discussing current literature in this light is dangerous. :) Seems like I should be able to think of more writers if I put my mind to it, too.


 * This whole article is a mess. I got as far as Washington Irving sounding "comfortably European" and realized it was very much POV. Claining Poe is the first "American" fiction author is certainly not an opinion that is beyond dispute. -- Decumanus 20:38, 1 Mar 2004 (UTC)

I didn't really think it was that bad, although the claim about Poe bothered me, too. (I'd forgotten by the time I got to the Whitman thing.) The article roughly parallels works of American fiction I read in high school. Maybe my teacher wasn't very NPOV. :)

Non-fiction?
Does literature encompass non-fiction? Certainly one of the great early contributions to American writing would be Thomas Paine's Common Sense, which was found in an enormous percentage of households of the day. (This is often cited as evidence that the early U.S. had an amazingly high rate of literacy before compulsory education.)

Native American Literature
This page should have a complete review of Native American Literature.

Birth/ death dates of authors
I've added a few in an unsystematic way, but it would be very useful to add more. This would help see authors that may be out of place. For instance, it may not be useful to put Cather (b. 1843) and Stegner (b. 1909) in the same sentence concerning the early decades of the 20th century.ch (talk) 21:51, 30 May 2022 (UTC)

Lede revised to relfect contents of the article
I revised the lede to reflect the contents of the article. I removed the Dickstein reference, which says that American literature is in English, but there is no obvious reason to give it special weight. Here it is for future reference:. I reluctantly left the Herlihy-Mera reference. It was introduced recently to support the claim that American literature is predominantly in English, but it is actually an attack on that position!

I would be happy to supply examples of American literature texts and surveys that include these traditions. For instance, Ch 22 "American literature in languages other than English," in Companion to American Literature ch (talk) 06:13, 31 May 2022 (UTC)

Exploring America Through Literature
Statement of the Purpose (200 Words Max.) 39.61.180.11 (talk) 10:31, 5 April 2024 (UTC)

Steven King - not even mentioned?
Someone with over 400M books sold and multiple movies could at least be mentioned somehow in the article. However Im unsure how Cambr5 (talk) 22:55, 2 May 2024 (UTC)