Minimalism In American Literature
AMERICAN LITERATURE Though American literature is rooted from the traditional English literature, which has managed to take on a personality of its own. However, the question of how a literature borrowed from a tradition in the same language could turn into something new has been raised. The answer should be traced back to the time when European settlers came to the North American continent to establish colonies. With an aspiration towards freedom from the controls existing in European countries, Americans, thus were associated in their mind with a dream of freedom and a quest for their own identity. Therefore, a significant reflection of dreams of freedom and quests for identity in American short fictions has made American literature not …show more content…
Minimalism can basically be characterized by simple prose with open-ended conclusions, ambiguous narration and heavy dialogues with little to no exposition. Minimalism blurs the distinction between the story and its readers and insists that the story does not exist without the readers. The story takes place in the readers’ minds and the readers themselves have to become actively involved in it and imagine as much as the writer does. By relying on personal experience and knowledge, readers may understand the story in various ways. Ernest Hemingway, Raymond Carver, Amy Hemple and Cormac Mccarthy are noticeable writers who rejected the traditional story telling techniques and used techniques of minimalism instead. American literature, accordingly, has distinguished itself by the employment of minimalism, especially in American short …show more content…
Those characters all start with their inner conflicts about their identity and get in the search for their identity in one way or another. However, through those characters, readers can identify a vicarious need for their identity. That is what distinguishes American literature from the others. To recap, this paper presents the Americanness in American short fictions. A new writing technique together with common themes of dreams of freedom and quests for identity in American short fictions has portrayed the uniqueness in American literature which is easily distinguishable from other literature, particularly from the traditional English literature from which it was derived. These distinctive features exemplify one of the integral qualities of the American society a burning desire for freedom and
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