# Who is the Shakespeare of your country? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 11, 2009, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-shakespeare-of-your-country/496042 "2009-05-11T16:03:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-shakespeare-of-your-country/496042/21 "2009-05-11T18:11:27Z")
Much I love me some Twain, I think Hemingway’s works are more thought of as “great literature” than Twain’s. Then again, great as Shakespeare was, he was also popular - maybe prolific authors of popular fiction such as King, Steel, Grisham or Clancy are better American Shakespeare analogues than Hemingway or Twain. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-shakespeare-of-your-country/496042/22 "2009-05-11T18:13:29Z")
> [@Tarwater](#): > > America, Henry James. No. No. A thousand times no! I’d put William S. Burroughs up before Henry James. Luckily, James isn’t even in the running. It’s a close race between Mark Twain and Ernest Hemingway. Henry James can continue to bedevil poor undergrads and leave the rest of the civilized world alone. But we all know it can’t be Twain until linguistic shift has robbed him of his devilish humor, as it has robbed Shakespeare. Hemingway is probably dour enough to pass muster with the would-be dons. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-shakespeare-of-your-country/496042/23 "2009-05-11T18:34:08Z")
> [@Tarwater](#): > > America, Henry James. :eek: You have _got_ to be kidding. Not Shakesperean in his language (name _one_ memorable line or quotation); not Shakesperean in his stories or characters (I doubt if one randomly-chosen American in a hundred could name any of his characters or describe any of his plots); not Shakesperean in his appeal (nothing for the groundlings, not much action or violence or comedy)—and not all that American either (spent much of his life in England and became a British subject). ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-shakespeare-of-your-country/496042/24 "2009-05-11T18:46:13Z")
I’m going to complicate this by stating that Shakespeare was a poet and playwright, and there aren’t many doing work good enough to be recognized in both genres. For the United States I’ll nominate T.S. Eliot. ---
**Author:** ![WormTheRed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/bbe5ce/32.png) [@WormTheRed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WormTheRed)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-shakespeare-of-your-country/496042/25 "2009-05-11T18:52:10Z")
> [@Mr.Moto](#): > > I’m going to complicate this by stating that Shakespeare was a poet and playwright, and there aren’t many doing work good enough to be recognized in both genres. > > For the United States I’ll nominate T.S. Eliot. And I’m gonna make it easier by saying, that for this discussion, he was simply the most influential English writer. Same as Cervantes for Spain, Laxness for Iceland, Strindberg (arguably) for Sweden, Hásek for the Czech, Goethe for Germany, Hernandez for Argentina and so on… No need to find someone who is AS influential for every individual country. Just the one who is the most. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-shakespeare-of-your-country/496042/26 "2009-05-11T18:55:24Z")
> [@Svejk\_1](#): > > Czech literature, of course, is translated much more often. Well known authors include Milan Kundera and Václav Havel, and then there’s Jaroslav Seifert, who won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1984. Also, there’s Karel Čapek, one of the Čapek brothers, who wrote magnificent books and is known for inventing the phrase and the concept of the robot. Traditionally though, the most well-known Czech author, I feel compelled to add, is Jaroslav Hášek, the author of ‘The Adventures of the Good Soldier Švejk’, which is a book well worth reading, to say the least. What, no Kafka? ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-shakespeare-of-your-country/496042/27 "2009-05-11T18:57:43Z")
> [@Bridget\_Burke](#): > > We’ve had some excellent writers in the USA, but I don’t know that we’ve had “our Shakespeare” yet. … Neil Simon? :runs and hides: ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-shakespeare-of-your-country/496042/28 "2009-05-11T18:58:03Z")
Pakistans Shakespeare would be Skakespeare. I mean we don’t have National College of Arts presenting endless adpatations of other peoples plays. For native tounges, hard to say actaully. I can’t think of anyone who is as dominant as the Bard in other languages. I mean we are’nt exactly pressed for quality or quantity, but its hard. I would say Amir Khushro would be one. ALmost all poets after him copied him ---
**Author:** ![infinitii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e8c25b/32.png) [@infinitii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/infinitii)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-shakespeare-of-your-country/496042/29 "2009-05-11T19:13:07Z")
I’m only from one of these countries, but here would be some guesses for others: For Russia, I guess it’d have to be Tolstoy (but some native Russians may counter with Gogol) For USA, my vote would be for Herman Melville, as he covered all the major styles and themes and made it uniquely American, but I see there’s arguments for others as well. (I would also put in a vote for Jack London but I think I would be even more argued with). I’d like to know of an Aussie one-- Miles Franklin maybe? Homer for Greece. Rumi for Persia or Afghanistan, perhaps. Muhammad for Saudi Arabia? Wisława Szymborska for Poland? ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-shakespeare-of-your-country/496042/30 "2009-05-11T19:13:19Z")
> [@Estilicon](#): > > Argentina has great poets and writers but our Shakespeare is a guy called [José Hernandez](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Hern%C3%A1ndez) (1834-1886). > He wrote an epic poem about a Gaucho called [Martín Fierro](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Fierro) that is a touchstone about argentinian identity. It’s funny because the poem is about a different Argentina, the one that existed before the massive inmigration of the late 19 century and early 20 century transformed my country into a different one: open plains, gauchos and indians were replaced by europeans and cities. > But just like americans and the far west, we treasure those bygones years as the years when our identity was formed (even though its mostly untrue). I would have guessed Jose Luis Borges, just because of his greater international reputation. I once saw the Christopher Hampton play **Tales From Hollywood** about the German expat writers in LA during the war. In it, Kurt Weil straight-facedly argues with Thomas Mann that America’s greatest writer is Erle Stanley Gardiner. Hee! ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-shakespeare-of-your-country/496042/31 "2009-05-11T19:16:14Z")
> [@infinitii](#): > > I’d like to know of an Aussie one-- Miles Franklin maybe? > > Homer for Greece. What is Neville Shute’s literary reputation at home? ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-shakespeare-of-your-country/496042/32 "2009-05-11T19:18:21Z")
For America, I’m gonna guess Thomas Pynchon or John Barth. Maybe Kurt Vonnegut. ---
**Author:** ![Neverending\_Elbow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e274bd/32.png) [@Neverending\_Elbow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neverending_Elbow)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-shakespeare-of-your-country/496042/33 "2009-05-11T19:20:55Z")
For Norway I think it’d have to be Ibsen. Known around the world, loved and hated, always played somewhere. For Poland I think no-one can beat Mickiewicz. He’s the Bard, his writing helped raise the spirit of the Polish people under the occupations and he wrote the national epic. Doesn’t get more important than that. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-shakespeare-of-your-country/496042/34 "2009-05-11T19:23:32Z")
I can name authors from many countries who are regarded as giants of literature in the USA, but I’m not sure whether they’re regarded similarly at home. Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Doestoevsky are probably the most revered Russian writers in the USA. Is their standing similarly high in Russia? Is either more highly esteemed than the other within Russia? That, I don’t know. If you were to ask most educated Americans to name the foreign writers whose works they were exposed to, whose works they were required to read, and whom was held up to them by teachers as the greatest writer their nation ever produced, I’d lay it out as follows: Denmark: Two utterly dissimilar writers come to mind: Hans Christian Andersen and Soren Kierkegaard areurely the best known and admired Danish writers here. England: Shakespeare, for poetery and drama; Charles Dickens for fiction Ireland: James Joyce is the most admired novelist, while George Bernard Shaw is the most esteemed dramatist. France: Victor Hugo is the most acclaimed of SERIOUS French writers (just ahead of Flaubert and Balzac), though Alexandre Dumas and Jules Verne are still much more widely read. Moliere is by far the most famous French playwright, though his works aren’t performed very often here. Germany: Very few German poets or fiction writers are widely read, or assigned to high school and college students here. Thomas Mann and Goethe are among the rare exceptions. If you were to ask a college student to name some German writers he had to read, he’s likely to point to philosophers or essayists, like Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels! Norway: Henrik Ibsen stands alone, here. Russia: Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky Spain: Cervantes is about the only Spanish writer most Americans could name USA: There is no one writer that most Americans agree was our greatest, but Mark Twain is probably the most famous writer our nation has ever produced, and his “Huckleberry Finn” is widely regarded (by Hemingway, among others) as the greatest American novel. ---
**Author:** ![infinitii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e8c25b/32.png) [@infinitii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/infinitii)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-shakespeare-of-your-country/496042/35 "2009-05-11T19:25:19Z")
> [@infinitii](#): > > For Russia, I guess it’d have to be Tolstoy (but some native Russians may counter with Gogol) I still think Tolstoy, but I forgot about Pushkin, who might be more nominated by Russians. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-shakespeare-of-your-country/496042/36 "2009-05-11T19:29:15Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Neil Simon? :runs and hides: If so, Andrew Lloyd Weber is The New Shakespeare! ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-shakespeare-of-your-country/496042/37 "2009-05-11T19:30:45Z")
Hemmingway’s got nothing on Twain. Hemmingway is regarded as Great Literature only by stuffy lit-major academics, but Twain, like Shakespeare, is enjoyed by almost everyone who encounters him. Plus, he actually got that concept that things are supposed to actually happen in a story. For poets, Eliot is very good, but even if we count him as American (he moved to England and became an English subject as a young man), I’d say that Frost is better (and there’s no dispute about his Americanness). ---
**Author:** ![DiggitCamara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df788c/32.png) [@DiggitCamara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DiggitCamara)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-shakespeare-of-your-country/496042/38 "2009-05-11T19:33:46Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > What, no Kafka? Well, the problem with him is that, quoth Wikipedia [All of Kafka’s published works, except several letters he wrote in Czech to Milena Jesenská, were written in German.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Kafka) ---
**Author:** ![infinitii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e8c25b/32.png) [@infinitii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/infinitii)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-shakespeare-of-your-country/496042/39 "2009-05-11T19:38:02Z")
Has anyone said Dante for Italian yet? Seems pretty obvious but I wanted to get it out there… ---
**Author:** ![fruitbat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/58f4c7/32.png) [@fruitbat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fruitbat)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-shakespeare-of-your-country/496042/40 "2009-05-11T19:45:23Z")
Let’s take care of some of the really obvious countries first: Ismail Kadare is unquestionably the Shakespeare of Albania. As far as I know he is the only widely read Albanian author outside of his home country. VS Naipaul could be claimed by India, but he is Trinidadian by birth. Gabriel Garcia Marquez has Colombia covered. Chinua Achebe is the only Nigerian writer I can think of who could be the Shakespeare of that country. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-shakespeare-of-your-country/496042.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-shakespeare-of-your-country/496042.md?page=3)