Question: for British Posters

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monicalosesweight
monicalosesweight Posts: 1,173 Member
in Chit-Chat
I've always wondered about this.

Here in the USA, our students take an American literature class and usually a British Literature class (or World Literature). In our county, it's British literature.

Do students in Britain take American literature? It's something I'm downright curious about.

If anyone else is from another country, do your students learn British literature or is it usually just your countries literature and a world literature style class?

Monica

Replies

  • lanzaroteblue
    lanzaroteblue Posts: 198 Member
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    We did cover American authors in high school and during
    my degree (in English) we had a section on Americal authors
    and also on literature from all over the world.
    I hope this helps xxx
  • monicalosesweight
    monicalosesweight Posts: 1,173 Member
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    Cool. I've always wondered whether you guys studied our literature as well. It would have been ironic if you didn't. :)
  • deadbeatsummer
    deadbeatsummer Posts: 537 Member
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    Cool. I've always wondered whether you guys studied our literature as well. It would have been ironic if you didn't. :)

    What would be ironic about it?

    In school we the subject was called English Literature. The only american author we studied was Harper Lee (To Kill A Mockingbird).

    I took my degree in English and American Literature and covered specific American Modules as well as Shakespeare ones, Victorian ones, etc.
  • eilidhmackk
    eilidhmackk Posts: 3
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    I don't know about England but I went to high school in Scotland where we just have one class which is just plain "English". In younger years, we mostly studied Scottish authors but in my final year I did Tennessee Williams and F. Scott Fitzgerald so I suppose it's a mix. I don't really think they delibrately study/don't study Amerian lit, they just choose the texts we get the most out of.
  • mywayroche
    mywayroche Posts: 218 Member
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    At school it was just called English Literature. We never focused down on a particluar country for any reason.

    Edit: I also don't understand the irony.
  • nevertoolate2
    nevertoolate2 Posts: 309 Member
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    Sorry guys - In our schools we study English. When you get to higher levels of education you can split your studies between English language and English literature.

    I did not study English literature but English language was compulsory. I am not aware that we read pieces or studied any authors other than English ones but it was a longggggggggg time ago!

    Not sure about university/college education.
  • Iceman1800
    Iceman1800 Posts: 476
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    You people across the pond talk funny :)
  • Thomasm198
    Thomasm198 Posts: 3,189 Member
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    Cool. I've always wondered whether you guys studied our literature as well. It would have been ironic if you didn't. :)

    No irony about it. Irish and British literature and authors are far superior to anything the US has ever produced. Why would we lower our standards to reading inferior writings? wait.gif


    :tongue:
  • RichardChubb
    RichardChubb Posts: 5 Member
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    I studied English Literature at school and, as with other posters, we had a mix of authors. At A- Level (16- 18 yrs) the bias was very much towards "English" rather than American writers- lots of Shakespeare, George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Alexander Pope. However, before that, we'd covered a few American authors as well- Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird) and John Steinbeck (Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men) definitely figured at various stages.

    I think generally, the distinction between American Literature and English Literature doesn't happen till university- prior to that all English literature from whichever side of the pond get lumped together.

    Edited to ensure I don't offend any Irish people- Richard Brinsley Sheridan was Irish born, not English- a fine writer in any case!
  • dhakiyya
    dhakiyya Posts: 481 Member
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    When I was at high school we did quite a lot of American literature, e.g. "To Kill a Mockingbird," and a few others, many of them exploring racial prejudice in the USA in the past.

    There's no special course for US literature in high schools; the literature studied spans the whole English speaking world, and the teacher rarely made any big deal about the distinctions between US writers, UK writers, Australian writers, etc, other than learning a little of the history behind the time and place the book is set, so we could understand it in context.
  • girlinahat
    girlinahat Posts: 2,956 Member
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    sometimes we call it American Literature sometimes we don't. When I was at 6th Form (16-19yrs) I took English Literature. After seven months of studying Seamus Heaney, W.B. Yeats, Arthur Miller, and F. Scott Fitzgerald I did start to wonder when we were going to get onto the English Literature bit.....


    (don't get me wrong - those authors are pretty impressive)
  • JesterMFP
    JesterMFP Posts: 3,596 Member
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    In my experience of secondary education in England and higher education in England & Scotland, "English literature" tends to refer to literature written in the English language and (again, in my experience) has usually focused on British, Irish and American writers. At high shchool I studied Shakespeare, George Eliot, Wilde, Steinbeck, Emily Brontë and various poets I can't remember.
  • saramerrigan
    saramerrigan Posts: 555 Member
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    In my experience of secondary education in England and higher education in England & Scotland, "English literature" tends to refer to literature written in the English language and (again, in my experience) has usually focused on British, Irish and American writers. At high shchool I studied Shakespeare, Eliot, Wilde, Steinbeck, Emily Brontë and various poets I can't remember.

    ^^ this

    When I was at school it was called English Literature. The word English in that context was denoting "written in English language" rather than that nationality of the author.
  • clairyfairy247
    clairyfairy247 Posts: 425 Member
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    At school we had English Language and English Literature. I never did English past school but I'm aware that A Level students did study American authors.

    We definitely did American history at school!
  • karenjoy
    karenjoy Posts: 1,840 Member
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    Just so you know Britain is not a country, its separate countries, different laws etc, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales
  • EmmaM2211
    EmmaM2211 Posts: 536 Member
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    At school we had English Language and English Literature. I never did English past school but I'm aware that A Level students did study American authors.

    We definitely did American history at school!

    Haha I have the opposite experience - we did a few American authors in school but didnt do any American History until A level!

    I think the consensus is that our schools dont differentiate between nationalities. If it's written in English it's studied in English Lit lessons. Until you get into further and higher education that is anyway.
  • wifealiciousness
    wifealiciousness Posts: 179 Member
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    I haven't specifically ever studied American literature, but some American authors (but with no focus on their nationality unless it were important to the studies)- so Harper Lee for example or T.S. Eliot. I studied English Language and Literature up to A-Level!
  • LouiseRose92
    LouiseRose92 Posts: 112
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    When I did my GCSE's about four years ago, we did English Language and English Literature (seperate classes, seperate exams). We did Of Mice and Men and The Crucible, and the rest were English authors.

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