A paper on British culture and customs

Every country or nation has its unique cultural charm, and Britain is no exception. The special geographical environment and glorious history have created Britain's unique island culture. The following is a model essay on British culture that I have compiled for you. Welcome to read it for reference! Papers on British culture 1

On the embodiment of British aristocratic culture in modern British novels

It is the essence of its enduring and vitality that British aristocratic culture can keep pace with the times and constantly innovate with the development and changes of social economy and politics. As a part of British culture, British aristocratic culture has its own sense of social responsibility and national characteristics. Influenced by this aristocratic culture in Britain, social elites, through their efforts to continuously improve their moral quality and humanistic cultivation, have become a higher social class, effectively stimulating the progress requirements of the British people, which has filled the whole British society with progress, vitality and positive energy; At the same time, with the enrichment of modern cultural activities and the improvement of cultural level, the degree of British aristocratic class's participation in culture has also been greatly improved, which has a positive impact on the inheritance and development of the whole British culture.

first, the concept of English aristocracy

English aristocrats originated from Anglo & middot; The Saxon era has a very long history. Conceptually speaking, English aristocrats can be divided into broad aristocrats and narrow aristocrats. In a broad sense, aristocrats talk about outstanding and outstanding people, that is, social elites we are talking about now, while in a narrow sense, aristocrats talk about people who are willing to perform military service, or people who make contributions to the country in the present words, or people with noble moral quality and personal quality. This is only a literal understanding, but in fact, there is a strict class hierarchy in British aristocratic culture. Nobles often refer to people who have achieved success in the military, politics, economy and other fields, and they still regard success or failure as heroes. In addition, part of the nobility comes from heredity, and the other part comes from the reward of the ruling class, or the warriors who have served in the war. Of course, with the progress and development of society, the structure of British aristocrats has undergone profound changes with the times. In the 15th and 16th centuries, with the rise of British capitalists, non-aristocrats or people at the bottom of society who mastered social capital gradually rose to the aristocratic class, which caused profound changes in the aristocratic structure. In the domestic literature on British aristocrats, Mr. Chen Xiao Law and Mr. Qian Chengdan made a more accurate and scientific definition. Their book "Tracing the Origin of British Cultural Patterns" holds that British aristocrats are a group, and the word used at first was "Nobility", which was gradually replaced by "Aristocracy". Generally speaking, the British aristocracy refers to a ruling class, a social class, a group of rulers or leaders.

Second, British aristocratic culture and literary works

American cultural anthropologists A.L. kroeber and K. colac Hong analyzed and investigated various cultural definitions in "Culture: An Evaluation of a Concept Definition" published in 1952, and then they gave a comprehensive definition of culture: "Culture exists in various implicit and explicit modes, which can be learned and spread by using symbols and constitute human beings. These achievements include various specific styles of goods they make. The basic elements of culture are traditional ideas and values (derived from history and obtained by choice), among which values are the most important. " Literary works are an inseparable part of social culture, and their memory function well reflects the cultural development mode and characteristics under the social background at that time. The British aristocratic culture is a reflection of a class society, and it is also a culture that urges people to pursue upward progress. Therefore, it is of great significance to extract the connotation of British aristocratic culture from literary works by analyzing the relationship between British aristocratic culture and literary works.

British aristocratic culture appears with brand-new images and roles in modern literary works. The inheritance and development of British aristocratic culture are influenced by many factors.

First of all, the Renaissance is a milestone in the history of British cultural development. The significance of the Renaissance lies in that it has shaken the position of religious culture in the history of British culture. Religion no longer has absolute control over culture and cannot play a decisive role in cultural orientation. In this case, the influence of literary works on cultural development and inheritance has made a qualitative leap.

Secondly, the development of education has changed the group attribute of British aristocrats. The rise of intellectuals effectively impacted the composition of British aristocratic groups and broke the social elite, cultural elite and management elite with religion as the core. The inner connection between this new intellectual group and the nobility has had a revolutionary influence on the development of British culture.

Thirdly, the British aristocracy is the center of politics, economy and power in Britain, which plays an important role in the development of the whole social culture and the form of literary works, and even determines the direction of cultural development and the form of literary works. The creators of literary works are subject to the British aristocracy in terms of economy, politics and power, and have no independent space for development and creation. Like all rulers, British nobles set foot in cultural industries and literary works in the hope of serving politics. As a result, literary works often reflect the admiration and appreciation of British aristocrats, the main purpose of which is to enhance their social prestige. Literary works are cultural media with inheritance significance, and the aristocratic culture and image involved can be well known to the readers.

Finally, in order to achieve rapid development, literary works must be sheltered by nobles under the social background at that time to avoid religious persecution; In addition, it also needs some financial support. Without the protection of nobles, literary works will be difficult to publish and distribute, and even the best works will not reach readers.

In a word, modern English literary works, mainly novels, got rid of the shackles of religious culture and began to find the soil for development in the aristocratic class, which also played a vital role in the development and publicity of British aristocratic culture.

Third, the cultural characteristics of British aristocrats reflected in modern British novels

(1) British aristocrats pay attention to property accumulation and focus on land acquisition

The economic foundation is the premise of maintaining the status of British aristocrats, and in the social background at that time, the value and significance of land assets occupy a considerable weight in the whole social assets, not only because of its own value, but also because land is a tool for nobles to accumulate wealth and extract more wealth. At that time, the level of British industrial development had not yet formed a scale, and it was impossible to extract more surplus value. Nobles can only rely on land to lay their economic foundation. Therefore, constantly expanding the scale of land possession is a basic means of wealth accumulation for the aristocratic class, which is also the reason for the hereditary of aristocratic families. At that time, the inheritance of land and the hereditary system of nobles came down in one continuous line. This can be found in the famous English literary works Pride and Prejudice and The Abandoned Tom&; middot; The History of Jones is well verified and the shadow of its aristocratic culture is found. In Jane &; middot; In Austin's Pride and Prejudice, Mr. Bingley chose to settle down in the country. Although he was a "rich N generation" who inherited 1, pounds, he did not continue to live in his original home in luxury, but bought land in the country according to his father's last wish, which reflected that cash was not a long-term solution to development in the social background of Britain at that time. Only with land can it be better sustainable and the aristocratic inheritance be better inherited. And Henry &; middot; Fielding wrote in his work The Abandoned Tom&; middot; The History of Jones tells the story that Mr. Weston finally agreed to the marriage of his daughter Sophia and an illegitimate child in order to expand the land scale. This is enough to reflect the importance of land assets. The above two cases fully reflected the situation that the British aristocracy paid attention to property accumulation and made great efforts to acquire land assets at that time.

(2) The British aristocracy has a strong concept of blood and family status

British aristocrats attach great importance to the nobility of their own blood. At that time, the innocence of social blood and the nobility of family status were highly valued by the entire aristocratic class, and even blood and family status are above everything else. This phenomenon still has some reservations. Because it brings not only its own sense of superiority, but also the respect and unusual treatment of others. The same family is only due to the accumulation of wealth for a while, but it is not respected and valued by the nobility because of the issue of blood and family status. British aristocrats often call themselves families, and each family is marked by its surname. Therefore, it is very common in British society at that time to pursue and find the blood relationship with aristocratic families. Hardy wrote in his novel Tess of the D 'Urbervilles that John &; middot; D 'Urbervilles danced with joy when they learned that he was descended from the old aristocratic family D 'Urbervilles. He even asked his 17-year-old daughter Tess to trace back to a local rich family to recognize her family, in exchange for financial assistance to get rid of financial difficulties. But in fact, this so-called rich man is just a nouveau riche who made his fortune by usury, and has nothing to do with this ancient English aristocrat, just like the feeling in the book: "Norman's blood is nothing without the assistance of Victorian wealth!" This reflects that the British civilians at that time hoped to achieve the climb of status through bloodline. Poor people are like this, and nobles need blood to win social respect and vanity for them.

(3) British aristocrats pay attention to the inheritance and education of aristocratic temperament

The success of British aristocrats is not only the nobility shown in appearance, but also attaches great importance to the cultivation and inheritance of their own qualities. They are well aware of the significance of this to the inheritance and development of the whole family, so they will invest a lot in the education of their daughters. They often pursue the cultivation and taste of the nobility. In their minds, literature, art, philosophy and poetry are essential qualities for a nobleman. This is also the main topic discussed by the nobles together. In the famous work Pride and Prejudice, the younger generation of Darcy is a complete "gentleman"; Emma, the heroine in the novel Emma, also truly reflects the cultivation of children by British nobles and the inheritance of aristocratic characteristics; The novel "Abandoned Tom&; middot; The history of Jones is loved and respected because of its aristocratic characteristics.

Aristocratic culture is a very important part of British culture. No matter from the origin of cultural development, inheritance or innovation with the times, it has left a rich and colorful stroke in the whole ancient British cultural history. As a turning point in the inheritance and development of British aristocratic culture in modern times, the composition of aristocratic groups has undergone profound changes, and the spread of aristocratic culture has also been well publicized and developed with the help of literary works. Through these literary works, especially British modern novels, we can dig out that the British aristocratic class pays attention to property accumulation and focuses on land acquisition; There is a strong sense of lineage and family, as well as the characteristics of paying attention to the inheritance and education of aristocratic temperament. On the development and characteristics of contemporary English literature

Abstract: Contemporary English literature is a dazzling cultural pearl in British history. With the establishment of British free capitalist market economy and the rise of democratic movement, various literary creation styles have gradually formed in British literary world, especially realistic literature has become the mainstream creative style in the field of contemporary English literature, and has a profound impact on the development of contemporary English literature. Based on the development characteristics and manifestations of contemporary English literature, this paper makes an in-depth study of the development of contemporary English literature.

Keywords: the writing style of contemporary English literature, the manifestation of the characteristics of realistic literature development

Introduction

In the process of human cultural development, literature has become a language tool for people to record culture, and with the historical process of human development, it has gradually changed from immature to mature. Literary works in different periods recorded different times and represented the social background at that time. Contemporary English literature also conforms to this objective law, and records the social changes in Britain at that time and the cultural exchanges and communication with other European countries through words. Due to the deepening of political and economic contradictions in contemporary Britain, the trend of contemporary literature has been affected, and many works are close to reality, reflecting the social background at that time. With the establishment of the free capitalist market economy in Britain and the rise of the democratic movement, a variety of literary creation styles have gradually formed in the British literary world, especially realistic literature, which has become the mainstream creative style in the field of contemporary British literature, profoundly influenced the development of contemporary British literature, vividly described the social changes at that time, and established its own unique development law. Based on the development characteristics and manifestations of contemporary English literature, this paper makes an in-depth study of the development of contemporary English literature.

an overview of the development of contemporary English literature

In the European literary system, English literature has undergone tremendous changes under the influence of other countries. At the beginning, English literature was only verbally narrated, not presented in writing. In the process of spreading the story track, the writer continued to develop and improve, and finally began to create. English literature has its own inherent law of development, and it has entered a new period with unswerving faith.

First, the most important development of English literature comes from the creation of drama. With the revolutionary movement of the Irish nation at that time, the stalemate of English literary tradition was broken, and British drama literature was developed. At that time, the creators combined the factors of European classical drama to create and achieved great success. For example, Bernard Shaw's The Occupation of Mrs. Warren occupies an important position in early English drama literature. In Britain, the climax of drama development was in the late 195s, with representative works such as Waiting for Godot by Beckett. These literary works can reflect the real life situation of contemporary British society with limited dialogues and situations, and the performance of outstanding British actors can highlight the connotation of British drama creation.

Secondly, English novels are mainly war novels. This is because Britain participated in two world wars and caused great trauma to the people, which resulted in endless traumatic literature. With the development of the new era, Britain is dominated by realistic literature, which has a strong language and can be said to be an important milestone in the development of English literature.

Third, the appearance of English poetry also occupies an important position in English literature, especially in contemporary English poetry, which is famous for its diversified rhythms and the integration of other countries' cultures. English poetry in this period has had a great impact on social culture. For example, the famous epic dramas Kings and Wasteland are all literary works with the characteristics of the times. Not only did he integrate the author's subjective emotions, but he also had profound thoughts on history and life. After the end of World War II, the poems created by English poets began to become simple, expressing people's inner feelings in concise language and forming their own factions. It can be said that poetry is also an indispensable part of the English literary system and continues to shine in contemporary English literature.

Analysis of the main schools of contemporary English literature

1 The development of contemporary British proletarian literature

Among the English literature produced in the 19th century,