>>7894561
Maybe before the twentieth century, but Pound alone makes the US a contender in the literary scene; and if you also consider Eliot, Crane, Ashbery, Faulkner, Nabokov (technically), Gaddis, Hawkes, Barthelme, Barth, McElroy, Mano, Burroughs, Coover, Vollmann, Theroux, Wallace, and Gass--my personal favorite--it becomes obvious that, for the latter half of the century, at least, America was, in terms of literature, the most wealthy country in the world. Though, I have to say, France comes pretty close.

>>7894593
He's talking about the contemporary literature.

>>7894605
Oh, well, then it's a little different.

>>7894561
In a sense he's right. Europe is a very complex ecosystem at the crossroads of the eastern hemisphere.

On the other hand, there's not a single other living author who would raise as much global furor among both scholars and readers as Pynchon would if he released a new novel tomorrow.

>>7894631
English language scholars.

I find this to be true. American authors are obsessed with America much more than European authors are obsessed with Europe. There's a universality to European writing that Americans really struggle with accepting - the only universality Americans understand is the imposition of America upon the rest of the world.

>>7894593
m8, pound was not american, he was only born in the US. as soon as he was old enough and came to his senses, he spent his life out of the US, even dying in Italy.

tfw the idea of calling some things "literature" and other things "not literature" is already dead, but some people don't know it.

>>7894639
Tommy P is very widely translated for a reason.

>>7894639

This desu

>>7894712
Yes, but he is a very american writer. French or spanish scholars, for example, I doubt they would be so excited.

I like my country, but I agree desu. I did hear that French people are reading Stoner though.