The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. 2002. Literature in English
From the standpoint of American cultural literacy, all commonly known literary works written in English are probably best placed in a single category. The separation of British from American literature is somewhat misleading, particularly in the case of older literature. William Shakespeare is an American author—not because he was an American, obviously, but because his writings formed a part of American culture from its beginnings. Every frontier town had Shakespeare productions and comic entertainments that alluded to details of Shakespearean plays. Geoffrey Chaucer and Milton are American writers in this sense too, having been part of educated discourse from the earliest days of our republic . In the nineteenth century Charles Dickens was as much an American as a British writer. (Certainly he thought himself so when he counted his American royalties and lecture fees.) It is uncertain whether Henry James and T. S. Eliot should be considered American or British writers, and it’s not particularly important. 1 Usual practice divides our literature into the following periods: the Middle Ages (e.g., Chaucer), the Renaissance (e.g., Shakespeare), the eighteenth century (e.g., Samuel Johnson ), the Romantic period of the early nineteenth century (e.g., Wordsworth ), the Victorian period of the later nineteenth century (e.g., Dickens), and the twentieth century (e.g., T. S. Eliot). The most self-consciously American literature belongs to the nineteenth century, when patriotic writers such as Emerson , Melville , and Whitman deliberately set out to reflect the distinctive character of American culture. In the twentieth century, literature written in English tended to be international as well as national in flavor, as in writers like Salman Rushdie . 2 Literature in English excels in every kind of writing. Its particular glory is its poetry. For historical reasons, the English language acquired a vocabulary that is unusually rich and nuanced, combining words of Germanic root (such as see and glimpse ) with words of Latin root (such as perceive and envision ). This variety in our vocabulary has allowed our poets a tremendous range of sounds and meanings and made poetry in English one of humanity’s great achievements.—E.D.H.
3 Entries
Achebe, Chinua Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale / Her infinite variety Agee, James Ahab, Captain Alas, poor Yorick! Alcott, Louisa May Alger, Horatio, Jr. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others All the world’s a stage Angelou, Maya Animal Farm Antony and Cleopatra Antony, Mark Arthur, King As You Like It Auden, W. H. Austen, Jane Baa, baa, black sheep Babbitt Bacon, Francis Baldwin, James Bard of Avon Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations Beowulf Big Bad Wolf Big Brother is watching you Black Arts Movement Black Boy Blake, William Book of Common Prayer Boswell, James Brave New World Brontë, Charlotte and Emily Browning, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Robert Brutus Brutus is an honorable man Bumppo, Natty Burns, Robert Byron, George Gordon, Lord Byronic hero The Canterbury Tales Carroll, Lewis “Casey at the Bat” Catch-22 The Catcher in the Rye Cather, Willa Chandler, Raymond “The Charge of the Light Brigade” Chaucer, Geoffrey Cheshire cat Christie, Agatha A Christmas Carol “Civil Disobedience” Clemens, Samuel L. Coleridge, Samuel Taylor Come live with me and be my love Conrad, Joseph Cooper, James Fenimore Cordelia cummings, e. e. David Copperfield Death, be not proud Death of a Salesman Dickens, Charles Dickinson, Emily Dinesen, Isak Do not go gentle into that good night … Rage, rage against the dying of the light Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Strange Case of Donne, John Dos Passos, John Double, double toil and trouble; / Fire burn, and cauldron bubble Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan Dracula, Count Dreiser, Theodore Drink to me only with thine eyes Dunbar, Paul Laurence East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet The Education of Henry Adams “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” Elementary, my dear Watson Eliot, George Eliot, T. S. Ellison, Ralph Elmer Gantry Emerson, Ralph Waldo Et tu, Brute? face that launched a thousand ships, Was this the Fagin “The Fall of the House of Usher” Falstaff far from the madding crowd A Farewell to Arms Faulkner, William The female of the species is more deadly than the male Fielding, Henry Fifteen men on the Dead Man’s Chest—/ Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum! Fitzgerald, F. Scott for whom the bell tolls Frankenstein Franklin, The Autobiography of Benjamin Friday Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears Frost, Robert Gather ye rosebuds while ye may Get thee to a nunnery Gibbon, Edward “The Gift of the Magi” Ginsberg, Allen Give me your tired, your poor Globe Theater God’s in his heaven—All’s right with the world “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” Gone With the Wind The Grapes of Wrath Great Expectations The Great Gatsby Grinch Stole Christmas, How the Gulliver’s Travels “Gunga Din” Had we but world enough, and time, / This coyness, Lady, were no crime Hamlet Hammett, Dashiell Harlem Renaissance Harry Potter Hawthorne, Nathaniel Heart of Darkness Hellmann, Lillian Hemingway, Ernest Henry, O. “Hey Diddle Diddle” Hiawatha, The Song of “Hickory, Dickory, Dock” Holmes, Sherlock Hook, Captain The horror! The horror! Huckleberry Finn, The Adventures of Hughes, Langston “Humpty Dumpty” Hurston, Zora Neale Huxley, Aldous Hyde, Mr. I wandered lonely as a cloud Iago ides of March, Beware the If music be the food of love, play on “In Flanders Fields” “Invictus” Invisible Man Irving, Washington It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done It was the best of times, it was the worst of times “Jack and the Beanstalk” “Jack and Jill” “Jack, Be Nimble” “Jack Sprat” James, Henry Jane Eyre Jeeves Jekyll, Dr. Johnson, James Weldon Johnson, Samuel Joyce, James Julius Caesar justify the ways of God to men, to Keats, John King James Bible King Lear kingdom for a horse!, My Kipling, Rudyard “Kubla Khan” The lady doth protest too much The land was ours before we were the land’s The Last of the Mohicans Lawrence, D. H. Lay on, Macduff lean and hungry look Leaves of Grass “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” Legree, Simon Lessing, Doris Let me not to the marriage of true minds / Admit impediments Lewis, C. S. Lewis, Sinclair “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” Lilliput “Little Bo-Peep” “Little Boy Blue” “Little Jack Horner” “Little Miss Muffet” Little Women “London Bridge Is Falling Down” London, Jack Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth Lord of the Flies Lord, what fools these mortals be! Macbeth McCarthy, Mary McCullers, Carson Mailer, Norman Malaprop, Mrs. a man’s reach should exceed his grasp Mary had a little lamb “Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary” The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation Melville, Herman Mencken, H. L. The Merchant of Venice Middle English A Midsummer Night’s Dream miles to go before I sleep Milne, A. A. Milton, John Moby Dick “A Modest Proposal” more things in heaven and Earth, Horatio Morrison, Toni Mother Goose rhymes Nabokov, Vladimir Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass Nash, Ogden Native Son Neither a borrower nor a lender be Never-Never Land “The Night Before Christmas” Nineteen Eighty-Four “O Captain, My Captain” “Ode on a Grecian Urn” Off with her head! Off with his head! O’Hara, Scarlett Old English “Old King Cole” “Old Mother Hubbard” Oliver Twist Once more unto the breach, dear friends one that loved not wisely but too well O’Neill, Eugene Orwell, George Othello Our Town Out, damned spot! “The Owl and the Pussy-Cat” Paradise Lost Parker, Dorothy Parting is such sweet sorrow “Paul Revere’s Ride” Peter Pan “Peter Piper” Pickwick, Samuel “The Pied Piper of Hamelin” The Pilgrim’s Progress Plath, Sylvia Poe, Edgar Allan poet laureate Pollyanna Poor Richard’s Almanack Pope, Alexander pound of flesh Pride and Prejudice providence in the fall of a sparrow, There’s a special Pulitzer Prizes Pygmalion The quality of mercy is not strained Rand, Ayn “The Raven” The Red Badge of Courage The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” Ring-a-Ring o’ Roses Rings on her fingers and bells on her toes “Rip Van Winkle” Robin Hood Robinson Crusoe “Rock-a-Bye, Baby” romanticism Romeo and Juliet Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo? Roots Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose Rushdie, Salman Sandburg, Carl The Scarlet Letter Scott, Sir Walter Scrooge, Ebenezer “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” “Self-Reliance” Seuss, Dr. Shakespeare, William Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Shangri-La Shaw, George Bernard Shelley, Percy Bysshe Shoot, if you must, this old gray head Shylock “Sing a Song of Sixpence” Something is rotten in the state of Denmark star-crossed lovers Stein, Gertrude Steinbeck, John Steinem, Gloria Stevenson, Robert Louis Stowe, Harriet Beecher A Streetcar Named Desire The Sun Also Rises sweetness and light Swift, Jonathan The Taming of the Shrew Tarzan The Tempest Tennyson, Alfred, Lord There was a little girl / Who had a little curl “There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe” They also serve who only stand and wait A thing of beauty is a joy forever Thirty days hath September “This Little Piggy Went to Market” Thomas, Dylan Thoreau, Henry David “Three Blind Mice” “The Three Pigs” Through the Looking-Glass Thurber, James tide in the affairs of men, There is a Tiger! Tiger! burning bright Time’s wingéd chariot Tiny Tim To be, or not to be Tobacco Road Tolkien, J. R. R. Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Tom Thumb transcendentalism Treasure Island “Trees” Twain, Mark Tweedledum and Tweedledee Twelfth Night “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” Uncle Tom’s Cabin Vanity Fair Victorian “The Village Blacksmith” Vonnegut, Kurt, Jr. Walden Walker, Alice “The Waste Land” Water, water everywhere, / Nor any drop to drink We are such stuff / As dreams are made on Wells, H. G. Welty, Eudora Wharton, Edith What’s in a name? That which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet Whitman, Walt Wilde, Oscar Wilder, Thornton Williams, Tennessee Wind in the Willows Winnie-the-Pooh the winter of our discontent Wizard of Oz, The Wonderful Woolf, Virginia Wordsworth, William “The World Is Too Much with Us” Wright, Richard Wuthering Heights Yahoos Yeats, William Butler
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. Edited by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Joseph F. Kett, and James Trefil. Copyright © 2002 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
