Alternative Read Blog Hop__The Great American Novel...Does it still exist?

For this week’s Alternate Read Blog Hop, the topic is the Great American Novel. Participants are to define what they think it means, what it should mean and why.

I like this topic because I studied plenty of classics in college, novels that first exemplified the Great American Novel like Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom, Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, and Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye. One of my term papers explained why The Great Gatsby exemplified the American Dream.

At publication, those books captured the collective spirit of current society in the United States, the perspective of the common American citizen. The works included flavors of present day cultural, intellectual, ethical, spiritual/moral, and political thoughts. They painted pictures of eras. Reading those novels today is to glimpse back in time, feel what it was like to be alive during those years.

The concept of the Great American Novel was created at a time after colonization, when the US was developing a unique identity in all ways, including literature. In my opinion, with the advent of internet technology, the differences between societies have lessened. A global society is now more prevalent. It is more difficult to create art, in any form, that mirrors the status of the US, especially since it is not quickly evolving and redefining itself as was the case when the label was coined. Therefore, I think of the term in an historical sense, rather than one that is applicable to the present. 

Please be sure to check the other great posts in today’s blog hop by clicking on the logo below.

~ ~ ~ Marsha A. Moore is a writer of fantasy romance. The magic of art and nature spark life into her writing. She is the author of the novel, TEARS ON A TRANQUIL LAKE, the first in a trilogy. Part two, TORTUGA TREASURE is contracted for release in January, 2012. Look for her first of an epic fantasy romance series, SEEKING A SCRIBE: ENCHANTED BOOKSTORE LEGENDS ONE, to be available late autumn.