While I do not deny that American literature has its great writers and texts, "the best literature possible" does not feature a predominantly American canon in my eyes. There is something to be said of the tradition of American literature, but it is hardly as original or amazing as its promoters make it seem - generally speaking, it is in part American self-promotion (you mention promoting while only having Poe and Cooper) and American ignorance of outside traditions that perhaps leads to this confusion. Simply put, the US is but a short segment of literary history, and its texts, though many are good, are not the be all and end all of literature.Of course, you should be more interested in what's yours. But if I didn't own a hammer I'd borrow one from a neighbor. Instead of filling your childrens heads with propaganda about how great their own tradition is, you would probably be better off just teaching them from the best texts available. I'd be pretty upset if my kid was only reading American literature and wasn't getting the best education possible. Vonnegut is alright, but he's no Shakespeare. It's not a native issue, it's a matter of quality. When you only have so much time to reach the little devils, why waste both your times on second rate garbage, even if it was manufactured in the next town over?
In the textbook for high schoolers, or universities then, why not discuss a place for American literature? Well, we can start by suggesting that the Chinese tradition is longer and more developed, which is a known fact, and that the English tradition benefits from a longer history of writers, and of readers - as do the Italian, French, German, Japanese, etc. traditions - so perhaps we should add them too. While we are at it then, we can say in the past 100 years Latin American authors have also been very influential and powerful players in the development of literature in the world, especially in prose fiction - the works of magical realist authors and nationalist authors using distinctly Latin American-originated motifs and tropes have made it as far as China and back - so we must look at them to while we make our list. Then there are historical presidents - we have our classic canon, from Homer, the Bible on one side, and from hundreds of other texts on others - surely if we are having this great exposure to the great authors, they must be included.
Do not get me wrong, I promote reading great books, but simply put, if you insist that I as a Canadian aught to be appreciating Walt Whitman, I return the challenge and suggest that one cannot say that without first reading the Japanese Book of One Thousand Leaves without realizing a cultural bias that takes its own tradition too seriously. IT is important to read American books, but they are not the be all and end all as many Americans forget.
Likewise English is but one language in the world that just happens to be the major language now (not that Chinese is not an equal rival).
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You have apparently chosen the wrong career ....
Originally Posted by dfloyd
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