Which country has produced the best literature?

Question

Doesn't the Irishman James Joyce own the English language?

I am not singling out the English language. I mention James Joyce only because he was Irish and used the English language in the most original and complex way since Shakespeare. I think Céline simplified French literature as drastically as Joyce complicated English literature.

Answer 1

That's like asking which grass is the best grass.

Different cultures produce different types of literature. Their worth can only be judge within the context of that singular culture.

My back ground is influenced by English culture and literature and so I find that more to my liking, but that doesn't less the works of other cultures.

Answer 2

Ok let me get this straight are you meaning only English literature? Then it would be Great Britain & USA( only in the 20th century ). However if language is not a bar, then I will say India. We have been writing books since the time pyramid was not built & Rome was just a village. We have had people like Rabindranath Tagore, Munshi Premchand, Saratchandra, Bankim chandra, Vidyasagar..... the list is unending. Even in recent times people like Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy, VS Naipaul, Jhumpa Lahiri, Vikram Seth, Amitava Chowdhuri, Shobhaa Dey have written wonderful stuff.

Answer 3

DWEM literature (Dead, White, English, Male) literture has been dominating the literature scene but it is not the only literature that the world has produced. A relatively small percentage has also been translated from other languages into English (for eg., Gabriel Garcia Marquez from Spanish)

Since a large number of us read English books only, we will be doing injsutice to the other literatures.

Answer 4

To be honest, the Good Ole US of A has the best modern literature - Twain, Whitman, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Poe, JC Oates, Updike, Raymond Carver, Annie Dillard, Annie Proulx, etc.. Despite the current state of popular culture, US still leads the literary world by a mile.

Answer 5

The basis of writing, literature, education, schools, teachers and pupils, etc., is Greece!
In Greece there were more than one million works before Alexandre time!
Philosophy, sciences, plays, arts, history, music, etc. have started in that of the world.
Even today, more than 2,000 years later, we have not discovered something new to work on or to write about!
All scientists, artists, writers, philosophers, etc., are reading what those wrote and analyze a side of what we understand!

Answer 6

Russia

Answer 7

most people would agree that the poems of homer and the dramas of shakespeare are among the treasures of world literature.

some people would also add the bible, dante's 'divine comedy', and 'pan tadeusz'.

it is difficult to think what other claimants there would be to work of universal and permanent value.

Answer 8

Persia

Answer 9

Books are written by many languages so it must be difficult to decide such a thing

Answer 10

Depends on your definition of "literature." In my opinion, though, it would be England.