Greenblatt, Stephen. “Culture.” Critical Terms for Literature Study. Ed. Frank
Lentricchia and Thomas McLaughlin. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1995. 225-32.
For most people the term culture means any knowledge or belief of art, morals, law, customs, or ideas that allow a man to successfully live in society. However, Stephen Greenblatt defines culture for the literary scholar as “gestures toward what appear to be opposite things: constraint and mobility” (225).
The constraint factor influences the members in a society to follow certain standards of behaviors, beliefs, and practices that are deemed to be acceptable by the public. Unacceptable practices cause the individual to suffer consequences; therefore, he is constrained by society’s expectations.
Greenblatt also discusses the literary styles of satire and orations as another kind of constraint in its criticism and praise, respectively. of the conformist. These types of writings do not have the same emphasis today as when they were written because the cultural values have changed. Greenblatt says the reader must “reconstruct the boundaries upon whose existence the works were predicated” (226) to understand the work as an expression of its own culture.
To do this, Greenblatt recommends asking the following questions about the work to understand it: (1) Which behaviors and practices does the work enforce? (2) Why might readers of a certain time and space be interested in the work? (3) What are the differences between the reader’s values and the values of the work? (4) What is the social understanding on which the work depends? (5) What freedom of thought might be constrained by this work? (6) What are connections with larger social structures? (226)
The author uses Shakespeare’s As You Like It, Spenser’s The Faerie Queen, and Dickens’ Great Expectations to explain his vision of culture as a “complex whole.” He understands that the study of a particular culture can add to the comprehension of a work of literature from that culture and a careful reading of the literary work can add to the comprehension of the culture from which it was produced.
Greenblatt sees the cultural mobility as an “exchange” in the form of negotiations for receiving material goods, for use in a kinship system, and through narratives of the people. All of these ideas relate to the codes governing human mobility and restraint. Concepts can be traded and shared by different societies. A society can preserve itself through restraints, but it can change and grow through the mobility of exchange.
By asking the cultural questions about a literary piece and trying to understand the changes that the literary work and the culture have experienced, the reader can examine these elements to determine how the growth and changes in a culture have been affected.
Lentricchia and Thomas McLaughlin. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1995. 225-32.
For most people the term culture means any knowledge or belief of art, morals, law, customs, or ideas that allow a man to successfully live in society. However, Stephen Greenblatt defines culture for the literary scholar as “gestures toward what appear to be opposite things: constraint and mobility” (225).
The constraint factor influences the members in a society to follow certain standards of behaviors, beliefs, and practices that are deemed to be acceptable by the public. Unacceptable practices cause the individual to suffer consequences; therefore, he is constrained by society’s expectations.
Greenblatt also discusses the literary styles of satire and orations as another kind of constraint in its criticism and praise, respectively. of the conformist. These types of writings do not have the same emphasis today as when they were written because the cultural values have changed. Greenblatt says the reader must “reconstruct the boundaries upon whose existence the works were predicated” (226) to understand the work as an expression of its own culture.
To do this, Greenblatt recommends asking the following questions about the work to understand it: (1) Which behaviors and practices does the work enforce? (2) Why might readers of a certain time and space be interested in the work? (3) What are the differences between the reader’s values and the values of the work? (4) What is the social understanding on which the work depends? (5) What freedom of thought might be constrained by this work? (6) What are connections with larger social structures? (226)
The author uses Shakespeare’s As You Like It, Spenser’s The Faerie Queen, and Dickens’ Great Expectations to explain his vision of culture as a “complex whole.” He understands that the study of a particular culture can add to the comprehension of a work of literature from that culture and a careful reading of the literary work can add to the comprehension of the culture from which it was produced.
Greenblatt sees the cultural mobility as an “exchange” in the form of negotiations for receiving material goods, for use in a kinship system, and through narratives of the people. All of these ideas relate to the codes governing human mobility and restraint. Concepts can be traded and shared by different societies. A society can preserve itself through restraints, but it can change and grow through the mobility of exchange.
By asking the cultural questions about a literary piece and trying to understand the changes that the literary work and the culture have experienced, the reader can examine these elements to determine how the growth and changes in a culture have been affected.
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