What makes american literature american

Dreams of freedom conveyed in American short stories are the desire of the American people to limit the outside interference constraining their freedom.

They aspired to their freedom even to the extent of paying a price for it. Emily remained living in the past, kept clinging to the Old South values, manners, and customs that her father had instilled in her. As for her, to do so would be to remove all those values of the past. She did such things of her own free will after all. She wanted to keep living in the past and there would not be any outside influence that could make her give up the way she wanted to live.

She was alienated and lived in isolation from the people in her town. Emily had to pay a price for her freedom of will. Body and soul free! As she had been living under the patriarchal dominance, the death of her husband means the disappearance of sorrow and subjugation. Thus she might not be happy owing to the death of her husband but the death of the intolerable power upon her life.

That repression was so strong that it made this young woman wish not to prolong her life but the day after, with the news of the husband's death, she wished her life would be long! It was within one hour when the woman for the first time in her life lived with happiness, full awareness of life and the freedom she had been longing for. Why did she die just because she saw him returning? The answer is apparent. She was for the first time enjoying her freedom from her marriage only to find that it was just merely a dream.

Her husband did not die. Consequently, she died, as a price she might pay for her desire for freedom. These two short stories are examples for one of the typical themes in American literature — freedom and paying the price for it.

Apart from the dream of freedom reflected in American short fictions, the quest for identity is also a noteworthy theme leaving distinctive imprints on American short fictions. Attempting to reach that stability, he can either remain true to his inner self or accept the reality and adjust to changes.

Whatever choice he makes and whether he finally succeeds or fails, stability is always the destination he yearns for on his way searching for his identity after all. Sylvia came from the city to live in the New England woods with her grandmother, Mrs. Spending nearly a year living with her grandmother, helping her with chores at home and exploring the wildlife around, she had taken to it easily and emerged herself in the new life.

Otherwise, she just maintained her place in nature. Placed between nature and civilization, she had to choose only one of them. How low they looked in the air from that height when one had only seen them before far up, and dark against the blue sky. She then knew she belonged to nature and her destiny was to be a part of it. Sylvia finally attained her emotional stability by remaining true to herself.

How do ethnic writers define literature? How does that differ from the canon of traditional American literature? Ethnic writes define literature as a work that encompasses ideal of humanity and life. Literature in itself identifies and describes in detail the lives and the objectives of human beings and the world as they experience it. Ethnic writers look for stories that tell of cultural traditions and the ideals of ancient society such as loyalty, and triumph over oppression.

Ethnic literature gives intimate details of the lives of a specific culture telling the readers about the life that their character lives and the country from which they come from. According to Phinney there are three identifying traits of ethnicity, the people of the culture will share common a attitudes, behaviors, and values; b a subjective sense of membership and belong to an ethnic group i.

What historical, socio-political, and cultural topics might be covered by ethnic writers? How does this differ from the canon of traditional American literature? Ethnic writers devote their time and artistry to dispelling stereotypes and telling the stories of their people. Ethnic writers will usual recount historical stories from the point of view of the people of their ethnicity. The canon of traditional American literature usually incorporates the stories of struggle in triumph of obtaining the American dream, and represents Americans as a unity people with common goals and aspirations.

Ethical writers might cover topics of oppression and the chain reaction of mass genocide or of fighting against those who would stereotype people for simply belong to one race or religion different from their own. A favorite point of interest for the ethical writers is any situations that cause a person to question their moral stance, such as the question of inter-racial love or friendship.

The traditional American canon promotes traditional love and marriage, with the notion of self-reliance and self-prosperity, America is known for their unique perspective of innate human right to the pursuit of liberty, freedom, and general happiness and wellbeing, few country provide their citizen the right to happiness as part of their constitution or citizen charter. How are the American literary themes of liberty, opportunity and equality addressed in ethnic literature?

Ethnic literature will usually focus on a specific ethnicity triumphs over adversity whilst obtaining the liberties, opportunities, and equalities of the American life-style. The Contemporary Period to present Prior to the last decades of the 20th century, American literature was largely the story of dead white men who had created Art and of living white men doing the same.

American literature is very important for the education of people as it reveals the culture and history of the United States. Moreover, American literature studying in other countries gives foreigners the opportunity to get to know American culture, history, and great works of the great authors better. American literature is often divided into five major periods: The Colonial and Early National period 17th century to The Romantic period to Realism and Naturalism to Over the centuries, American authors have shaped a vast body of work, often reflecting voices that are distinctly American.

American voice writers demonstrate the potential of literature to capture realities of time, place and, above all, people. Uniquely American voices illuminate the power of language.

Literature allows a person to step back in time and learn about life on Earth from the ones who walked before us. We can gather a better understanding of culture and have a greater appreciation of them. We learn through the ways history is recorded, in the forms of manuscripts and through speech itself.

Here are just a few things literature can teach us: About ourselves. It was created by Paul Weyrich, a key strategist for the paleoconservative movement. At its peak, it claimed to reach more than 11 million homes.

Channel: Studying American literature encompasses understanding society. From this study, society can only improve by analyzing the writing in any culture. American literature has produced some of the most significant prose and poetry the world has seen. Literature acts as a form of expression for each individual author.

Some books mirror society and allow us to better understand the world we live in. Literature is a reflection of humanity and a way for us to understand each other. Literature is a term used to describe written and sometimes spoken material. The seven literary standards are: artistry, suggestiveness, intellectual value, spiritual value, permanence, universality and style. These are a set of characteristics to determine whether or not a work is literary. The criteria was developed by writer William J.

It has the ability to evoke common human responses, universally. And the beauty of literature is that this can be done through more than just the telling of a good story. Universal appeal can be achieved through language, themes, style, and other literary devices. Literature teaches us of many things about the human experience.