Entering the Conversation

1. What makes American literature distinctly American? What aspects of our nation, our storytelling, our language, our culture, or the genres in which we work make our literature exceptionally American?

   Question

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   Entering the Conversation: - What makes American literature distinctly American? What aspects of our nation, our storytelling, our language, our culture, or the genres in which we work make our literature exceptionally American?
2. Coined by the French writer on America, Alexis de Tocqueville, “American exceptionalism” is a term used to describe the telling of the American story as a grand and unique narrative. Some think that American exceptionalism has contributed to a limited national identity, marginalizing those whose stories do not fit the narrative. Consider the views of the writers here, as well as your reading in American literature, and write an essay in which you support, challenge, or qualify the concept of American exceptionalism.

   Question

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   Entering the Conversation: - Coined by the French writer on America, Alexis de Tocqueville, “American exceptionalism” is a term used to describe the telling of the American story as a grand and unique narrative. Some think that American exceptionalism has contributed to a limited national identity, marginalizing those whose stories do not fit the narrative. Consider the views of the writers here, as well as your reading in American literature, and write an essay in which you support, challenge, or qualify the concept of American exceptionalism.
3. Consider one of the American novels you have read this year. Write an essay in which you analyze it as being representative of American literature. Refer to at least three of the sources here for ideas about what might or might not define American literature.

   Question

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   Entering the Conversation: - Consider one of the American novels you have read this year. Write an essay in which you analyze it as being representative of American literature. Refer to at least three of the sources here for ideas about what might or might not define American literature.
4. Rice University scholar Caroline Levander suggests we ask, Where is American literature? rather than What is American literature? She says that American literature has emerged over space as well as over time and that another way to look at American literature is as a “collaborative undertaking occurring throughout the nation’s shifting geographic margins and centers.” Use Levander’s lens to imagine a round-table discussion in which the writers here consider the question, Where is American literature?

   Question

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   Entering the Conversation: - Rice University scholar Caroline Levander suggests we ask, Where is American literature? rather than What is American literature? She says that American literature has emerged over space as well as over time and that another way to look at American literature is as a “collaborative undertaking occurring throughout the nation’s shifting geographic margins and centers.” Use Levander’s lens to imagine a round-table discussion in which the writers here consider the question, Where is American literature?
5. What’s ahead for the great American novel? Maria Konnikova, writing in Slate, says,

   Today’s American soul is a far cry from that of the mid-1800s. With translations and multiculturalism, fluid borders, constant travel, and cultural intermingling, what does it even mean, American? Race, slavery, these are all indelible parts of the picture. But increasingly, racial history may be becoming one of an array of ever-mingling, ever-changing, ever-shifting possibilities. Surely, just as apt a modern-day contender for the title would be someone like Teju Cole or Junot Diaz or Jhumpa Lahiri—someone who embodies America’s flow of identities, the reimagining of the American Dream. That, in a way, would be far more akin to the spirit of the GAN [Great American Novel]—the vista that tries to capture what it means to be American, in contrast to being anything else.

   Write an essay in which you predict the future of American literature, focusing on, as Konnikova says, what it means to be American.

   Question

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   Entering the Conversation: - What’s ahead for the great American novel? Maria Konnikova, writing in Slate, says,Today’s American soul is a far cry from that of the mid-1800s. With translations and multiculturalism, fluid borders, constant travel, and cultural intermingling, what does it even mean, American? Race, slavery, these are all indelible parts of the picture. But increasingly, racial history may be becoming one of an array of ever-mingling, ever-changing, ever-shifting possibilities. Surely, just as apt a modern-day contender for the title would be someone like Teju Cole or Junot Diaz or Jhumpa Lahiri—someone who embodies America’s flow of identities, the reimagining of the American Dream. That, in a way, would be far more akin to the spirit of the GAN [Great American Novel]—the vista that tries to capture what it means to be American, in contrast to being anything else.Write an essay in which you predict the future of American literature, focusing on, as Konnikova says, what it means to be American.