Scholars Defend American Literature

With the announcement of the Nobel Prize in literature expected in the coming days, many literary hopefuls are sure to be on the edges of their seats as American authors like Philip Roth, John Updike ’54, and Joyce Carol Oates are considered for the prize. But a comment made on Tuesday by a senior member of the Swedish Academy—the body that bestows the Nobel Prize—that American literature is too self-absorbed might throw cold water on the hopes that an American author will bring home the prize.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Horace Engdahl called the United States “too isolated, too insular.”

“They don’t translate enough and don’t really participate in the big dialogue of literature,” Engdahl said. “The ignorance is restraining.”

Engdahl added that American writers are “too sensitive to trends in their own mass culture” and that “you can’t get away from the fact that Europe is still the center of the literary world.”

But in interviews yesterday, English professors at Harvard responded heatedly to the accusations, calling Engdahl’s comment misguided and uninformed.

“Mr. Engdahl’s unfortunate statement seems to stem from a certain historical and literary myopia,” English professor Werner Sollors, a specialist in American literature, wrote in an e-mail. “American writers have received a good share of Nobel Prizes in literature. From Sinclair Lewis (1930) to Toni Morrison (1993) there have been a total of ten winners.”

Sollors added that the United States has long been a destination for other writers, citing Russian-born Joseph Brodsky and Seamus Heaney, an Irish writer who spent years teaching at Harvard.

Several professors added that the broad indictment contained in Engdahl’s comment weakened his point because it amounted to a sloppy generalization.

“What he is talking about is definitely not academic criticism and scholarly work,” said English professor James Engell, who chairs the department. “But it is not clear what he is talking about. Is he talking about American publishers, American writers, American institutions?

“That is why the statement has caused such a storm,” Engell added. “It’s like throwing a spark into a gasoline tank. He is accusing a whole nation.”

English professor Gordon Teskey, who specializes in English Renaissance poetry, said that Engdahl’s statement misses the fact that literature must grow out of the community in which it is written.

“All literature, like wine, is local,” he said. “Local conditions provide the ingredients that give rise to literature. Literature realizes the universal when the local is combined with universal experience.

“Europeans live in very close proximity to other countries, and Americans do not,” Teskey also said. “Many Europeans travel to other countries and speak other languages, whereas Americans do not do so as often. But after spending much time in France, it is very interesting to see how important American literature is in France—American novels are translated very quickly.”