This collected volume deals with the tension between literary production and traditional language norms in the two Americas. The central question posed is that of whether and how literature assumes an initiating or even determining role in establishing pluricentric language norms. Overview accounts of the genesis of (literary) language norms in the various language areas (English, French, Portuguese, Spanish) are accompanied by portraits of particular writers, analysing their specific contribution to the questioning of exogenic norms and the strengthening of endogenic standards.