In essence, there is no difference between American English and British English, but cultural differences have great influence on literary criticism. The following is an analysis of the differences between British and American literary criticism that I have compiled for you. I hope it will help.
Different countries and nations have formed different cultures in the process of development, and this cultural difference constitutes a rich and colorful cultural world. But at the same time, many aspects are influenced by this cultural difference, and the field of British and American literary criticism is no exception. Based on the perspective of British and American literary criticism, this paper focuses on the substantive influence of cultural differences on English literary criticism from three aspects: cultural connotation, cultural development carrier and cultural history.
Keywords: cultural differences; Review of British and American literature; Cultural connotation; Cultural carrier; Cultural history; affect
Among many factors, cultural differences have a great influence on literary criticism. This paper analyzes the influence of cultural differences on British and American literary criticism, which has certain practical significance.
First, an overview of British and American literature
In British and American literature, English has become a tool for British and American people to express their feelings and thoughts, and its style has the characteristics of diversity. British and American literature includes the following contents: novels, plays, poems, etc. English literature has gone through different stages of development, but it has different artistic characteristics at different stages.
Influenced by World War I and World War II, English literature began to develop in a diversified direction. Compared with Britain, American literature started late. For a long time, American literature always imitated English literature. At the beginning of the 20th century, American literature developed rapidly and occupied the same important position as English literature in the world literature. At this time, American literature began to have distinct characteristics.
Second, an overview of British and American literary criticism
The so-called literary criticism refers to the analysis of the development law of literature by means of literary theoretical phenomena, thus promoting the development of literary creation activities. The contents of literary criticism include: commenting on novels; Comment on poetry, drama, etc.
In literary criticism, British and American literary criticism is an important part. British and American literary criticism analyzes British and American literature with the help of literary theoretical phenomena. It not only discovers the laws of British and American literature, but also guides its creation. English literary works are the targets of British and American literary criticism. The purpose of this is to analyze the thoughts and feelings contained in literary works and explore the creative style in literary works, so as to make more people like British and American literary works.
Third, the influence of cultural differences on British and American literary criticism.
The influence of cultural differences on British and American literary criticism is mainly reflected in three aspects: cultural connotation, cultural development carrier and cultural history. The specific performance is as follows:
(A) the impact of cultural differences on the evaluation of British and American literature
British and American literary criticism has been hovering between inheriting traditional culture and breaking away from it. As we all know, Hamlet is the work of English writer Shakespeare, but in this novel, the protagonist Hamlet is also lingering? Revenge? With what? To be or not to be? Between the two, the protagonist's indecision is vividly displayed. At this time, English literary criticism was just like Shakespeare's hero's character.
From17th century to18th century, English literary criticism took on a religious color, and during this period, English literary criticism struggled between inheriting and breaking away from traditional culture. With the passage of time, English literary criticism began to develop in the direction of post-colonialism, post-modernism and feminism. In the process of literary criticism, we should not only examine the theory horizontally, but also think about the theory vertically, so as to determine the literary theory that conforms to the current social development.
The distinctive cultural connotation of Britain will also deeply influence literary criticism. Literature and literary criticism complement each other. To study American literary criticism, we must first study American literature. Although continental European literature has deeply influenced American literature, American literature has also formed its own unique characteristics in the process of exploration. Similarly, so is American literary criticism. American literary criticism has experienced many difficulties in the process of exploration and finally achieved a qualitative leap. American literary criticism is an innovative and inclusive literary criticism. It fully draws on the excellent literary criticism thoughts of other countries, and then creates on this basis, ensuring the diversity of American culture.
(B) the impact of cultural development carrier differences on the evaluation of British and American literature
In the process of cultural development, language plays the role of a bridge. At the same time, language has become an important symbol to distinguish countries. Language differences affect the evaluation of British and American literature to some extent. In essence, there is no difference between American English and British English, but America is a new country, whether it is a cultural system or a political system, so American English is also new. Therefore, literary critics often boldly choose language when commenting on American literary works, which leads to the innovation and individual freedom of American literary criticism.
(C) the impact of cultural and historical differences on the evaluation of British and American literature
Due to the incompleteness of the British bourgeois revolution, many literary critics are still conservative when commenting on English literary works. We know that there is humanism in Shakespeare's works, but with the development of society, many literary critics began to deny humanism, which eventually led to the conservatism of English literary criticism. The cultural history of America, a new country, is very different from that of Britain, so America pays more attention to humanism. Under the influence of humanism, many literary critics have made innovations when commenting on American literary works.
Why are there completely different characteristics? The reason is that the United States is an independent and democratic country, and the cultural atmosphere created is also independent and democratic, which leads to the development of American literary criticism without considering external factors. Therefore, American literary criticism is an innovation based on humanism, which leads to the radical and free characteristics of American literary criticism.
Fourth, summary.
In a word, cultural differences have a great influence on British and American literary criticism.
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