American literature is the written or literary work produced in the area of the United States and its preceding colonies. For more specific discussions of poetry and theater, see Poetry of the United States and Theater in the United States. During its early history, America was a series of British colonies on the eastern coast of the present-day United States. Therefore, its literary tradition begins as linked to the broader tradition of English literature. However, unique American characteristics and the breadth of its production usually now cause it to be considered a separate path and tradition.
Read more about American Literature: Colonial Literature, Post-independence, First American Novels, Unique American Style, Early American Poetry, Realism, Twain and James, Beginning of The 20th Century, The Rise of American Drama, Depression-era Literature, Contemporary American Literature, Minority Literatures, Nobel Prize in Literature Winners (American Authors), American Literary Awards, Literary Theory and Criticism
Famous quotes containing the words american and/or literature:
“There is one thing that the American people always rise to and extend their hand to and that is the truth of justice, and of liberty, and of peace. We have accepted that truth and we are going to led by it ... and through us the world, out into pastures of quietness and peace such as the world never dreamed of before.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)
“Literature that is not the breath of contemporary society, that dares not transmit the pains and fears of that society, that does not warn in time against threatening moral and social dangers—such literature does not deserve the name of literature; it is only a façade. Such literature loses the confidence of its own people, and its published works are used as wastepaper instead of being read.”
—Alexander Solzhenitsyn (b. 1918)