问答题 The English reader may accept my assumption that there is such a thing as American literature, and concede that American writers, like the Irish, have managed surprisingly well with their mixed-up heritage. Yet he may still be worried about literary values(or at any rate English ones), and complain that in stressing the American qualities inherent in American literature there is a danger of cultural chauvinism. Americans, he might argue, harp on American humor. American democracy, and so on. as though they were American discoveries, virtues peculiar to the United States. They do the same, he may think, in respect to their vices: to anti-intellectualism. commercialism, and the like, which are characteristic of England also. Here I agree to some extent with my imaginary English reader. American literary historians are perhaps prone to view their own national scene too narrowly, mistaking prominence for uniqueness. They do over-praise their own literature, or certainly its minor figures. And Americans do swing from aggressive over-praise of their literature to an equally unfortunate, imitative deference.