Further, I believe the best American (and other) literature, has always done that, and does that now, within any age.

However, I also do not feel that American literature should do anything different from other national literatures (except to spring, which it would and does naturally) from the distinct environment in which it was or is written). It should definitely not be confined, either, to focusing only on American topics (another category difficult to actually limit or define). If American literature anthologies or collections are any guide to what the term "American literature" may actually mean, John Winthrop's "A Model of Christian Charity," composed as sermon to be read at sea to the author's fundamentalist flock of Puritan Dissenters sailing toward an unknown New World; and the 20th century Russian emigre Vladimir Nabokov's novel Pnin (about a Russian emigre professor and writer in America), qualify equally well (and is included,...
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