Greater Literature: England Or The United States?

[Era Might]

I'm curious, in the interests of friendly competition: which country do you think has the greatest literature in the English language, England or the United States?

I vote for the United States. My vote is biased, not only because I'm from the United States, but I also prefer modern literature. Not that there weren't some great modern writers from England (though T.S. Eliot was from the United States!), but England is perhaps best known for older authors like Shakespeare, who wrote before the United States even existed.

[Archaeology cat]

I put England. Though if we're going with modern lit I've definitely read more American authors than English so I couldn't say. But I'm a huge Shakespeare fan, so had to go with that.

[LivingStone]

Why do people think of Shakespeare when you say British Literature? Ok, I can actually understand why...

I prefer British literature over American literature based upon the following novelists and authors from Great Britain:
-G. K. Chesterton
-C. S. Lewis
-J. R. R. Tolkien

C'mon, does more need to be said? What does America have, even in light of Christian thought and fiction (and philosophy for that matter) that is equivalent to the Brits?

[LivingStone]

Ok, so Lewis is actually Scottish, sorry, but he's an Oxford Great in a sense, eh?

[Varg]

A more fair question would be European literature compared to American literature, but whatever.

Angleterre, no doubt. Shakespeare, Tolkein, Conrad, Chaucer, Dickens, Austen, the Brontes, Wordsworth, Wilfred Owen, William Blake...
















...Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens

[Era Might]

[quote name='LivingStone' date='11 November 2009 - 02:17 PM' timestamp='1257967063' post='2000764']
Why do people think of Shakespeare when you say British Literature? Ok, I can actually understand why...[/quote]
Well, Shakespeare is in a league of his own.

[quote name='LivingStone' date='11 November 2009 - 02:17 PM' timestamp='1257967063' post='2000764']I prefer British literature over American literature based upon the following novelists and authors from Great Britain:
-G. K. Chesterton
-C. S. Lewis
-J. R. R. Tolkien[/quote]
I'm not familiar with the fiction of Chesterton, Lewis, and Tolkien, but I would bet that Hawthorne is a greater fiction writer than all three of them. The American Renaissance in literature was in the mid 1800s: Hawthorne, Poe, Melville, Whitman, etc. Granted, England had some great writers during that time as well (Dickens, Austen, etc.).

I think the United States definitely has the advantage over England in poetry.

[Era Might]

[quote name='Varg' date='11 November 2009 - 02:28 PM' timestamp='1257967704' post='2000769']
A more fair question would be European literature compared to American literature, but whatever.[/quote]
I wanted to focus on literature in the English language.

[Era Might]

I think that the Beowulf-poet, Chaucer, and Shakespeare are the three English figures who sort of "stand above" everyone else in English-language literature. Otherwise, I think there are American writers who are "in the conversation" of greatness with any writers from England.

[Archaeology cat]

[quote name='Era Might' date='11 November 2009 - 07:30 PM' timestamp='1257967808' post='2000771']
I'm not familiar with the fiction of Chesterton, Lewis, and Tolkien, but I would bet that Hawthorne is a greater fiction writer than all three of them. The American Renaissance in literature was in the mid 1800s: Hawthorne, Poe, Melville, Whitman, etc. Granted, England had some great writers during that time as well (Dickens, Austen, etc.).
[/quote]
While I like Hawthorne (and Poe & Whitman), I can't say I'd say Hawthorne is better than Lewis or Tolkien. Just my personal opinion, of course. Dickens has great stories, though he's rather verbose. Chaucer of course is good, and who doesn't like Beowulf.

[Varg]

I forgot Milton.

[Era Might]

[quote name='Varg' date='11 November 2009 - 03:05 PM' timestamp='1257969946' post='2000793']
I forgot Milton.
[/quote]
I'm not a huge fan of poetry from the English Renaissance. They wrote some pretty poems, but they talked too much about romantic love. And I get bored with traditional poetic form (rhyme, sonnets, etc.). I prefer modern American poets.

[Starets]

When discussing English Literature, we should not forget the "Silver Age" of the Restoration and 18th Century, with such writers as Dryden, Pope, Swift, and Johnson

[Era Might]

[quote name='Staretz' date='11 November 2009 - 03:25 PM' timestamp='1257971135' post='2000806']
When discussing English Literature, we should not forget the "Silver Age" of the Restoration and 18th Century, with such writers as Dryden, Pope, Swift, and Johnson
[/quote]
I haven't read much poetry from that age, but I generally don't like the style of that age, with one exception: Alexander Pope. I love his poetry! He has such a great sense of rhythm and rhyme.

[Starets]

I like Pope as well, even though sometimes I wish he would miss a syllable! But there were some good prose from that period as well. Swift's Gulliver's Travels is the most thoroughgoing satire ever written. Nothing escapes satirization, not even Gulliver himself. His "Bickerstaff Papers" may have done more th discredit astrology than the Scientific Revolution. Johnson's Rasselas has been called the wisest and saddest work in all literature with the sole exception of Ecclesiastes. He wrote it in the evenings of one week in order to cover the costs of his mother's funeral.

Informal essays were very popular in that era. The Rambler and The Idler are two examples.

[kafka]

Impossible question. Impossible.

Poetry

England:

Shakespeare, Milton, Spencer, Donne, Blake, Wordsworth, Keats, Shelley, Byron, Tennyson, Hopkins, Hardy, D.H. Lawrence, Yeats (if you include Ireland),Thomas, Hughes, Auden, Heaney (irish)

vs.

America:

Whitman, Dickinson, Thoreau, Robinson, Stevens, Poe (in my opinion not a good poet), Plath, Eliot, Frost, Lowell, Williams, Crane

Overall, England wins however the U.S. has had more quality poets in the post-Romantic era.

The Novel:

England:

Defoe, Austen, the Brontes, Shelley, Stoker, Dickens, Hardy, Lawrence, Forster, Conrad, Chesterton, Lewis, Tolkein, Thackery, Eliot (George), Kipling, Du Maurier, Adams, Huxley, Orwell, Christie

vs.

Melville, Hawthorne, Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Hemmingway, O'Connor, Pynchon, Nabokov (adopted), McCarthy, Danielewski, Wallace (David Foster), Oates, Salinger, Tarkington, Vonnegut, Steinbeck,

This one is difficult. I hate to say it, but England prevails if you add James Joyce to their list. Joyce wrote a lot of immoral stuff, however his raw talent is unmatched. Plus the Brits have Austen and Bronte, both brilliant and in my opinion underated. Again though the U.S. has Melville, Pynchon, Hemmingway all innovators. So maybe we have more quality in the post-modern times. As far as Catholic writers England wins over the U.S. We seem to have a lack of Catholic/Christian literary writers whereas England has more: Hopkins, Chesterton, Lewis, Tolkein, etc.

Edited November 11, 2009 by kafka