American Literature vs British Literature
British Literature has much more of a historical background on which to draw inspiration and genius and great literary works from the minds of men......mostly men by a long chalk. It simply goes back so much further in time than does the American, so it's bound to have a much richer base in an historical sense anyway. Some of our British wordsmiths go back considerably further than Shakespeare and Milton.
The Venerable Bede instantly comes to mind at this flashed moment in time. He lived c. 673 to 735, was a monk - hence the title and later became a Saint and was from the north east of England I think (around Durham as I recall from my school days)......a great literary scholar, historian and theologian. In Latin he wrote "The Ecclesiastical History of the English People" in the year 731. That's now almost 1300 years ago. The Bede's feast day is later on in this month of May.
Y'all still do the an-before-H thing? How cute!
"It simply goes back so much further in time than does the American, so it's bound to have a much richer base in an historical sense anyway. Some of our British wordsmiths go back considerably further than Shakespeare and Milton."
Not true at all.
When it comes to "going back further in time," American literature shares exactly the same English literary heritage as British literature does.
Unless you think the early colonists of America knew nothing of Shakespeare, Milton or the Venerable Bede and started their literary traditions from a blank sheet of paper after they arrived at Jamestown.
<<Y'all still do the an-before-H thing? How cute!>>
URIEL:
For some reason, I've always thought YOU do that...I mean some of you. :-)
I get your point, 07VA. The problem with us over here is that we automatically think that everything American literally started on 7 July 1776, and that anything before that in the vast expanse of Unexplored Untouched Uncharted America was a gaping void, like the Grand Canyon (which I'd dearly love to see, btw). Or the blank sheet of paper as you say. So what you actually said was that the American literary genius was transported from us over here in the first place anyway, so let's not argue the toss here too much! :-)
The aspirated or unaspirated "h" - surely it's easier to say "an historical fact" than "a historical fact"? You have to change the sound of the indefinite article if you don't use "an" and it just sounds laboured with more aspirated effort required. But I suppose most people do say "a hotel" rather than "an 'otel", but I just checked out a couple of texts and all of them quote "an hotel", so maybe the standard written differs from the standard vocal.
"The problem with us over here is that we automatically think that everything American literally started on 7 July 1776"
Yes, I've also often noted a tendency in the UK to believe that BE is the "mother language" when, in fact, BE and AE are siblings.
That's wrong. BE is mother language. Imagine, if America is not a super power, who gives a toss to American English. I can bet my life that British English would have been the most popular and taught language all over the world. All great poets, novelist and accents are belonged to the great land of England! Envy us, you monotonous sounding Americans and Canadians!
"That's wrong. BE is mother language. Imagine, if America is not a super power, who gives a toss to American English. I can bet my life that British English would have been the most popular and taught language all over the world. All great poets, novelist and accents are belonged to the great land of England! Envy us, you monotonous sounding Americans and Canadians!"
Ooh, cranky!
Get up on the wrong side of the bed this morning, did we?
<Got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning, did we? >
>>Uriel Sun May 06, 2007 6:38 pm GMT
Uh, we have more than just Robert Frost. Hemingway, Steinbeck, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Vonnegut -- any of these ring a bell?>>
Mark Twain, Jack London, Salinger...
...my favorite John Cheever...
Anyone likes William Makepeace Thackeray?
Mark Twain's beard drives me away from reading his novels! Russia has also produced big names in the literary world.