One recent BlogSpy posting mentions the fact that Austrian literature, though written in German, is not the same as that of Germany itself.
This phenomenon is mutatis mutandis widespread throughout Europe. Switzerland has literature written in German, French and Italian - three languages that are also spoken in Germany & Austria, France & Belgium and Italy, respectively. And even German literature, written in East and in West Germany between about 1945 and 1991, could be discussed as two separate literatures.
The Brits also have the bad habit of borrowing Irish, Australian, New Zealand, etc., authors and blurring the distinction between English literature from England and English literature, meaning that written in English and not from the USA or maybe Canada.
The Finland-Swedes always have to suffer the ignorance of most readers from Sweden as to what the difference is between literature written in Finnish and that written in Swedish by Finnish citizens.
And the Flemings, though writing in Dutch, have a rather weak publishing tradition, meaning that most talented Flemish authors end up being published next door in the Netherlands. Then the Dutch craftily include major Flemish authors as part of Dutch literature. Another sleight of hand.
Literature is written in Hungarian in Romania.
Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian are more or less the same language, but with different national histories. Ditto Urdu and Hindi.
Literature is also written in French in Canada, and in Portuguese in Brazil. But the literatures are discrete.
So, as I said in the title of this thread, a language is not a country.
This phenomenon is mutatis mutandis widespread throughout Europe. Switzerland has literature written in German, French and Italian - three languages that are also spoken in Germany & Austria, France & Belgium and Italy, respectively. And even German literature, written in East and in West Germany between about 1945 and 1991, could be discussed as two separate literatures.
The Brits also have the bad habit of borrowing Irish, Australian, New Zealand, etc., authors and blurring the distinction between English literature from England and English literature, meaning that written in English and not from the USA or maybe Canada.
The Finland-Swedes always have to suffer the ignorance of most readers from Sweden as to what the difference is between literature written in Finnish and that written in Swedish by Finnish citizens.
And the Flemings, though writing in Dutch, have a rather weak publishing tradition, meaning that most talented Flemish authors end up being published next door in the Netherlands. Then the Dutch craftily include major Flemish authors as part of Dutch literature. Another sleight of hand.
Literature is written in Hungarian in Romania.
Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian are more or less the same language, but with different national histories. Ditto Urdu and Hindi.
Literature is also written in French in Canada, and in Portuguese in Brazil. But the literatures are discrete.
So, as I said in the title of this thread, a language is not a country.