Leire Ins Corts ENG 240 February 25, 2011

Is there such as thing as American Literature?

When Margaret Fuller argued that there was not such a thing as American Literature, in 1846, all that had been written so far, and labeled later as American Literature, was a variety of works with a very different writing style, and whose authors came from a very different background regarding nationality, ethnicity, language, education, class, and religion. This is probably the reason that led Fuller to make such a statement. Beginning in the Colonial period, we have been left with a collection of journals written or interpreted by Spanish conquerors and travelers in America. In them, they describe the land and the peoples in it, and narrate their adventures in an attempt to follow the European tradition of travel writing. For instance, Cabeza de Vaca narrates some events with the natives: The next day we left, and all the people of the place went with us: and when we came to the other Indians we were as well received as we had been by the last. They gave us of what they had to eat, and the deer they had killed that day. Cabeza de Vaca, among others, focuses on telling facts, everyday events during his journeys, leaving the feelings aside. Going on with the Colonial period, we encounter works from the puritan community, who were indeed highly educated and religious people. They would write sermons, diaries, journals, poetry, hymns, etc. mostly concerning their particular religious views, and with the purpose of explaining God, making God relevant or glorifying God. Mary White Rowlandson, for example, leaves us with a good example of Captive narrative, in which she writes about her

three-month captivity: I must turn my back upon the Town, and travel with them into the vast and desolate Wilderness...it is not my tongue, or pen can express the sorrows of my heart, and bitterness of my spirit, that I had at this departure. In her writing, she not only describes the situation in which she encounters herself and family, but also describes her emotions, and makes a considerable large amount of allusions to the Bible and to God with the purpose of comparing it to her experience, and maybe, at the same time, looking for Divine signs. Writers in the Age of Reason made a major contribution to American history. Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, among others, would discuss intellectual and political freedom, and the possibility of founding a new nation. This ended up in the writing of the declaration of independence, included in the autobiography of Jefferson: that all men re created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with CERTAIN [inherent and] inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Education played a major role in this period too; it was believed that Education would shape our behavior, and perhaps, make us more perfect human beings. An example of this idea is portrayed in Adamss letter to Jefferson in 1813: there is a natural Aristocracy among men; the grounds of which are Virtue and Talents. As a last (but not least) example of the vast variety of styles within American Literature, Romanticism is relevant in this case since fiction is starting to make its appearance. Well-known authors such as Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne write shadowy terror short stories in which features such emotion, intuition and imagination are very weighty: He had taken a dreary road, darkened by all the gloomiest trees of the forest, which barely stood aside to let the narrow path creep through, and closed immediately behind. In this period, facts or realism is not important anymore, and way is made for ambiguity, complexity and emotions.

As mentioned at the beginning of this essay, Margaret Fuller probably said that there is not such as thing as American Literature because of the array of different texts with different styles, written in different languages and with different purposes. However, a key point that we should take into consideration is the extremely controversial concepts of both American and Literature. That is, Fullers statement will make sense depending on how we define these two terms, plus, the two of them together. Academics and writers have struggled in defining the concept of Literature, what it is and what is not Literature. I personally think that Literature is the written, artistic expression of a group of people that represent the beliefs and thoughts of one or more than one culture. On the other hand, the term American is very complex, and I might now be the most indicated to discuss this. Therefore, I will borrow Walt Whitmans neat expression to define America: Leaves of Grass, that is, different, individual leaves (people) that belong to the same grass (America), yet every leave having its own root (background), which means that every individual has a different story to tell. There is not a unified, unique, homogenous Literature in America. But I believe there is a heterogenous and diverse American Literature, that portrays the vast variety of cultures, subcultures and backgrounds of the inhabitants of the US. Source: Lauter, Paul. Ed. The Heath Anthology of American Literature, Concise Edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2004.