What is American Literature?

What is American Literature?

When I was asked this question, I pondered for a bit and came up with this outcome: I think American Literature is the understanding of American history through reading American novels, poems, and other pieces of literature. Through this, we can learn concepts and patterns of the history of the Americas such as the war like time periods or even further into the nomadic tribes era. I think that reading American classics for the purpose of learning about our past is very important so we do not repeat the bad parts of history and can learn from our mistakes as we continue to strive as a nation. So, tell me fellow bloggers, what do you think of American Literature and what we can learn from it?