Which COUNTRY has produced the greatest literature? Have your

>country
>nation
Which one is it, now?

>>8446077
Britain (I include Ireland)

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>>8446080
What's the difference?

>>8446160
As far as my understanding goes, a nation is more of a cultural cohesion thing that doesn't necessarily imply political unity, whereas a country does necessitate some form of political organisation.

E.g many writers from what is now Germany would be described (and describe themselves) as German (Nationality), but live in a set of scattered smaller states and countries until unification in 1872. (not really sure about the distinction between country and state, I guess the latter is purely political, whereas the former presupposes some from of national/cultural cohesion).

I'd say the largest volume of great literature has come from the British Isles, but that might just be because I'm an anglophone.

For consistency of great literature, it's hard to beat Russia. (Quick, name five lousy Russian authors. See?)

Per capita, Canada and Iceland do quite well.

Most of the convention defying of the past century seems to have come from the United States.

>>8446185
>Quick, name five lousy Russian authors.
An actual Russian could probably do this easily.

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>>8446077
Us

Even our XX century neorealism is way better than your meme beat generation

>>8446185
>For consistency of great literature, it's hard to beat Russia

It's true, particularly in the 19th Century, Russia produced a great number of excellent writers : Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Turgenev, Gogol, Chekhov, etc. who all had to say profound things about human nature and whose works are still well-known in the West and have been frequently used as a basis for other artistic productions such as films, theater, etc.

With regard to Brendan's comment that Russia doesn't have that many writers so that the best get published : they actually do have a lot, it's just that the best get published in the English-speaking world which is why the English--speaking world only knows a select number. Also many works deal with intensely Russian/local issues which may not be of interest internationally. But there are plenty of good/medium rate Russian writers that are published and appreciated in Russia.

By the same token when I lived in the USSR, I only knew a select # of American/Canadian/British authors, and it's only when I moved to Canada and started taking English lit. in high school that I became acquainted with a lot of interesting writers from the English world.

America has, because it's up there with the greatest despite being a relatively young nation, and it's only going to get better because of our obsession with the Great American Novel, it forces us to become better.

>expecting people who predominately speak and read at most two languages about the literature published in languages they don't even speak and whose cultural environment they don't belong to and thus don't even possess the capacity to estimate its (the literature's) value

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Our understanding of foreign literature is limited by what has been translated if we are monoglot and if one is a metropolitan troglodyte ones horizons will be very limited indeed. There are hundreds of Russian writers but the overwhelming majority will never have been translated or will have been translated in very truncated form. There is definitely 'heroic' Welsh literature. There are numerous Northern Irish writers and Scots, well ... too many to bother enlightening one who probably aint very interested.

>>8446195
>Neorealism
>No magical realism
I'm sorry, mut the best of the latinamerican Boom wasn't Mexico. I guess Argentina makes it better with Borges, Cortazar, Bioy Casares, Ocampo sisters and Pizarnik.

>>8446212
I'm Italian you colorblind fuck

>>8446180
All countries are states (e.g., the USA) but not all states are countries (e.g., Arkansas, etc.).

>>8446219
sssssh let him believe

>>8446224
The UK, however, calls England, Scotland, N. Ireland and Wales countries, even though they're not states. And in Germany, the 16 federal "subdivisions" are called "Länder" (countries) in German, but in English they're called States. I guess it largely depends on sociopolitical context and definitions.

>ancient greece
>a country
Shows what you know, frogposter.