Talk:English literature: Difference between revisions

I'm not convinced by the new wording which says that English literature is distinct from Scottish, Irish and Welsh literature. Aren't Oliver Goldsmith, George Bernard Shaw and Sir Walter Scott counted as belonging to the English literary scene? They will certainly be found in the Oxford Companion to English Literature Deb 22:19 Feb 10, 2003 (UTC)

The easy way out is to use a reference book entitled The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English. This is also hinted at at the beginning of the article. I think all we need here at Wikipedia is (at least some) consistency plus cross references to the other articles. Do you think it's okay that authors such as Shaw or Wilde are always seen as Englishmen? --KF 22:37 Feb 10, 2003 (UTC)

Absolutely not. However, English literature to me means literature written in English (see Welsh literature). But if that's not what it means to other people, I'm not going to die in a ditch over it. Deb 22:59 Feb 10, 2003 (UTC)

I agree completely with Deb. Mintguy

What about creating an umbrella article called Literature in English or even Literatures in English? There we could state exactly what you have said: that for many people English literature is synonymous with those terms. --KF 23:13 Feb 10, 2003 (UTC)

As I was the one with the new wording: Is American literature the same as English literature? Is Australian? I don't think so, and I think this is the general consensus. There is Irish literature that emphatically is not English literature, and I was assuming that the rest holds true - e.g., literature from Scotland and Wales. My main concern was that 'english' might be taken to mean any literature from the United Kingdom. I don't know enough (or anything, in fact) about Welsh literature to begin an article on that, but I imagine that there's a welshman, somewhere, who writes in english but considers himself and his writing emphatically Welsh. The same is true of literature from India and throughout the old empire. Atorpen 23:14 Feb 10, 2003 (UTC)

Here's a thought. Is it possible that the common view is that English literature is anything in that language, but among scholars (and therefore presumably, people who write encyclopedias) the term is slightly narrower? Atorpen

'English Literature' is 'English (language) literature', not Literature of England. If you want to cover the literature of Ireland or Scotland then have articles titled 'Literature of Scotland' etc.. Mintguy