American literature
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:''[[The Great American Novel]], [[19th century American literature]], [[20th century American literature]]'' | :''[[The Great American Novel]], [[19th century American literature]], [[20th century American literature]]'' | ||
'''American literature''' refers to written or [[literature|literary work]] produced in the area of the [[United States]] and [[Colonial America]]. It owes a debt to [[European literature]] and [[British literature]] but has a [[unique American style]] and its own [[epic]], the [[Great American Novel]]. Central to this wiki are [[Edgar Allan Poe]], the [[lost generation]] (American expatriates in Paris of the 1920s and 1930s), the [[beat generation]] (1950s literary movement), [[Grove Press]], the [[Partisan Review]] and [[New York intellectuals]], [[black science fiction]] and the corpus of [[Dalkey Archive Press]]. | '''American literature''' refers to written or [[literature|literary work]] produced in the area of the [[United States]] and [[Colonial America]]. It owes a debt to [[European literature]] and [[British literature]] but has a [[unique American style]] and its own [[epic]], the [[Great American Novel]]. Central to this wiki are [[Edgar Allan Poe]], the [[lost generation]] (American expatriates in Paris of the 1920s and 1930s), the [[beat generation]] (1950s literary movement), [[Grove Press]], the [[Partisan Review]] and [[New York intellectuals]], [[black science fiction]] and the corpus of [[Dalkey Archive Press]]. | ||
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- | After [[World War II]], a new receptivity to diverse voices brought black writers into the mainstream of American literature. [[James Baldwin]] ([[1924]]-[[1987]]) expressed his disdain for racism and his celebration of sexuality in ''[[Giovanni's Room]]''. In ''[[Invisible Man]]'', [[Ralph Ellison]] ([[1914]]-[[1994]]) linked the plight of African Americans, whose race can render them all but invisible to the majority white culture, with the larger theme of the human search for identity in the modern world. | ||
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- | In the 1950s the West Coast spawned a literary movement, the poetry and fiction of the "[[Beat Generation]]," a name that referred simultaneously to the rhythm of jazz music, to a sense that post-war society was worn out, and to an interest in new forms of experience through drugs, alcohol, and Eastern mysticism. Poet [[Allen Ginsberg]] ([[1926]]-[[1997]]) set the tone of social protest and visionary ecstasy in ''[[Howl]]'', a Whitmanesque work that begins with this powerful line: "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness...." [[Jack Kerouac]] ([[1922]]-[[1969]]) celebrated the Beats' carefree, hedonistic life-style in his episodic novel ''[[On the Road]]''. | ||
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- | From Irving and Hawthorne to the present day, the short story has been a favorite American form. One of its 20th-century masters was [[John Cheever]] ([[1912]]-[[1982]]), who brought yet another facet of American life into the realm of literature: the affluent suburbs that have grown up around most major cities. Cheever was long associated with ''[[The New Yorker]]'', a magazine noted for its wit and sophistication. | ||
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- | Although trend-spotting in literature that is still being written can be dangerous, the recent emergence of fiction by members of minority groups has been striking. Here are only a few examples. [[Native American]] writer [[Leslie Marmon Silko]] ([[1948]]- ) uses colloquial language and traditional stories to fashion haunting, lyrical poems such as ''[[In Cold Storm Light]]''. [[Amy Tan]] ([[1952]]- ), of Chinese descent, has described her parents' early struggles in [[California]] in ''[[The Joy Luck Club]]''. [[Oscar Hijuelos]] ([[1951]]- ), a writer with roots in [[Cuba]], won the 1991 [[Pulitzer Prize]] for his novel ''[[The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love]]''. In a series of novels beginning with ''[[A Boy's Own Story]]'', [[Edmund White]] ([[1940]]- ) has captured the anguish and comedy of growing up [[gay]] in America. Finally, African-American women have produced some of the most powerful fiction of recent decades. One of them, [[Toni Morrison]] ([[1931]]- ), author of ''[[Beloved]]'' and other works, won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1993, only the second American woman to be so honored. | ||
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==Minority focuses in American literature== | ==Minority focuses in American literature== | ||
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American literature refers to written or literary work produced in the area of the United States and Colonial America. It owes a debt to European literature and British literature but has a unique American style and its own epic, the Great American Novel. Central to this wiki are Edgar Allan Poe, the lost generation (American expatriates in Paris of the 1920s and 1930s), the beat generation (1950s literary movement), Grove Press, the Partisan Review and New York intellectuals, black science fiction and the corpus of Dalkey Archive Press.
Minority focuses in American literature
See also
- Western fiction
- American literary criticism -
- Bartleby the Scrivener (1853) - Herman Melville
- World literature
- Culture of the United States
- Love and Death in the American Novel by Fiedler
- Wonderfreaks (2001) - Jan Wildt
People
Ambrose Bierce - Paul Bowles - William S. Burroughs - James Cain - Dennis Cooper - Allen Ginsberg - Kenneth Goldsmith - Jack Kerouac - Ernest Hemingway - Stephen King - Jack London - H.P. Lovecraft - David Markson - Herman Melville - Chuck Palahniuk - Edgar Allan Poe - Ezra Pound - Thomas Pynchon - Terry Southern - Mark Twain - Edmund Wilson - George Lippard - Paul Auster