What is american literature? what are the distinctive voices and styles in american literature? how do social and political issues influence the american canon?

this multi-part question should instigate discussion about the aesthetics and reception of american literature. what is a masterpiece? when is something considered literature, and how is this category culturally and historically dependent? how has the canon of american literature changed and why? how have american writers used language to create art and meaning?

what does literature do? this question can also raise the issue of american exceptionalism: is american literature different from the literature of other nations?

So, the American literature is the literary work produced or done in the United States and the presedimg colonies.

The colonial literature is the American writing about the owrk of English adventures and colonist in the New world.

The Bay Psalm was the first work published in the puritan colonies (1640).

The time of intellectual activity, social and economic change were the achieves of the American Revolution and the actual independence of the United States.

A canon is a set or list of texts that are considered the most important in a language or culture. The interpretations of what should be in the American literary canon can be plenty and different. This American canon refers to the work of American literaryre and poetry that are largely considered by critics and scholars to represent the American perspective about art.

Hope this helps.