Great American Novel

The term Great American Novel ( engl. the " Great American Novel " ) is a slogan commonly used in the American literary discourse. He referred to the ideal of a novel, an example is intended to reflect the essence of the U.S., so the best American novel ever written (or can be written ).

The term was coined by writer John William DeForest in the title of an article that appeared in the magazine The Nation on January 9, 1869.

Discursive meaning

The concept of the Great American Novel is associated with the romantic paradigm of the national literature, ie the idea that the essence of a nation manifests exemplary in their literature. The need for legitimation of the young republic in particular the desire to European nations to appear greater in the U.S. compared to the mother country Great Britain as a nation of culture equal. However, the American literature should not imitate the European literature, but we also specifically American subjects in a distinctly American style.

The competition between the American and English literature was also Fanned by frequent swipes English authors. Especially lasting hurt a 1824 by Sydney Smith published in the Edinburgh Review set the pride of the American literary establishment:

"In the four quarters of the globe, who reads an American book? ( German: " Who ever reads this big wide world for an American book? ") ".

On the other hand, complained quite well as American critics in the 19th century often that the American literature have so far contributed little or nothing to " world literature ".

That of all literary genres calculated on the novel of the order was coming to bring the ordinations of the nation expressed, is due to a generally Prestige growth, which the novel in Europe recorded, and the corresponding loss of importance of other forms such as the epic poem. On the other hand, the novel in the United States has always been a particularly good reputation; American independence and the emergence of the modern novel fall into the same time.

Reached a climax the Transfiguration American writer in the 1940s and 1950s in the wake of FO Matthiessen's immensely influential literary historical work, The American Renaissance ( 1941). The Matthiesen following Americanists generation ( so especially Perry Miller, Henry Nash Smith, Charles Feidelson, Harry Levin, Leo Marx, Leslie Fiedler ), the task to specifically name the American of American literature prescribed. Since the 1970s, this approach has fallen into disrepute whether its ideological premises.

Title contenders

Despite all the criticism of ideology, the question is in the American literary scene until today always asked which novel is the Great American Novel, or whether it was not even written yet. Philip Roth parodied this game by 1972, he published a novel entitled The Great American Novel. Roth's novel is an ironic apotheosis of the baseball game, that is a trivial, but still classic American pastime.

As a contender for the title of best American novel of all time following novels are usually out in the field:

John Dos Passos ' USA trilogy ( 1930-36 ) can be understood as a deliberate attempt to claim the title of Great American Novel - it is a broad genre picture of all American parts of the country and the population.

Ideal (ethics) The Sound and the Fury
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