For those living outside the US, what are your country's opinion of US literature? Are we known or associated with any particular genre (kind of like how most American readers associate South American literature with magical realism)? If I had to guess, I would say maybe the lie of the "American Dream" in an "All that glitters is not gold" kind of way. Are US classics taught in school? If so, which ones? Does winning the Pulitzer carry any weight outside the US?
Are there any US literature that is a big part of non-American's childhood? For example, we grew up reading Roald Dahl, Anne of Green Gables, Babar, Harry Potter, etc. Did anyone outside the US read Little House on the Prarie series growing up? Black Beauty? The Percy Jackson series?
Are US pop culture authors like Hoover, Maas, Brown, Spark, Clancey, Yarrrows, etc popular outside the US as well?
Looking for some outside perspective. Thank you for sharing your thoughts!
by Anxious-Fun8829
5 Comments
As an American curious about this as well, I might ask if Pynchon or DeLillo or even Chuck Palahniuk are well known outside of the country.
I’m in my forties, in Australia
American literature did not exist as a child. I read zero of the books you mentioned
As an adult, absolutely yes. It’s everywhere. Very easy to find
The Pulitzer doesn’t hold much weight here. We pay attention to the Booker more I’d say.
Me, I prefer European and Latin American authors, so my tastes don’t align well with American literature. But it’s certainly very available
We used to teach things like Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men in school in the UK. Some schools still do, but there has been a big shift to teaching writers from other cultures.
Some specific areas have removed all American novels from the courses to focus on UK writers in particular.
in canada anyone or anything that’s famous in america is famous here, and then we also have our own niche celebrities. I’d imagine it’s the same for the rest of the english speaking world
US genre fiction tends to dominate everywhere, that does create a problem when none of that is read in school. We only read brazilian classics that go up to the early 1920’s.
So what most people tend to read out of school were the harry potter books, I dont remenber any other franchise being as popular if you were not a bookworm.
I had never heard of any of the american classics before I was an adult and got curious about it.