What Was Wrong With "Bob Dylan"?

Literature prof: Carlos Fuentes and Octavio Paz were two Mexican intellectuals who wrote essays concerning what it meant to be Mexican. Can anyone name some equivalent American intellectuals who were concerned with what it means to be American?
Student #1: Steven Spielberg?
Student #2: J. K. Rowling?
Student #3: Bob Dylan?
Student #4: C. S. Lewis?
Student #5: Stephen king?
[silence]

--Fordham University Classroom

Overheard by: [Embarrassed] to be an American

via Overheard in New York, Jun 6, 2008