Broadening Our Horizons in American Literature

When I read Caroline F. Lavender and Robert S. Levine’s “Introduction: Hemispheric American Literary History,” something just seemed to “click.”  Perhaps, I was pleased with how they not only incorporated many of the influential texts and articles about broadening our perspectives and approaches to American literature but also how they contributed to this conversation and asked several thought-provoking questions:

What happens to US and Americas literary and cultural studies if we recognize the asymmetry and interdependency of nation-state development throughout the hemisphere? [. . .] what happens if the `fixed´ borders of a nation are recognized not only as historically produced political constructs that can be ignored, imaginatively reconfigured, and variously contested but also as component parts of a deeper, more multilayered series of national and indigenous histories? (401)

I’m not going to pretend I have all the answers to these questions since I don’t think they can easily be resolved; however, these questions did spur me on to consider that American literature—though as many of the scholars like Carolyn Porter have pointed out can be rather ethnocentric and U.S. oriented—if considered in a broader scope, such as including the cultural influences of Africa, the Americas, Europe, Latin America, etc., would be a truer and more accurate picture of Americans (both in North and South America).  It is not as if a U. S. citizen is only influenced by North America or only has Puritan ancestry.  A writer from any country has multiple influences: cultural, political, religious, etc.  If American literature were approached with this “broader horizon or outlook” then many important connections could be made.  When border lines are erased, then what is American literature becomes both more complicated and risky.  It becomes complicated since there is such a broad scope that it may be a bit easy to become inundated with cultural influences, and it becomes risky because when borders are erased the lines of what is American literature become blurred or are missing.  However, Lavender, Levine, Porter, and many of the others we have read believe it is a risk that must be taken in order to have a deeper insight and fuller understanding of the conflicts and complications of American literature.  Thus, it is the blurring or eradicating of boundaries that might actually free us to see American literature in a fuller light.  At this point, I’m not sure if I’m making sense, but I also like Lavender and Levine do not pretend that I’m saying something “new” (399).  However, this is “new” to me, so I’m using this response blog as a way of making my own thoughts clearer to myself.  Perhaps, I’m helping someone else as well (which would be great), but if not, then, I’m at least helping myself start to see American literature from a broader perspective.    

Jessica E.