Culture is the reflection of the nation. American society has undergone vivid changes in the cultural development observed under the impact of social and moral values dominating in different periods. Culture culminates from the dynamic ways in which people relate to their environment and with each other in the struggle to enhance life and to survive. Culture embodies the values, belief systems, customs, and norms of a people shaped by the people’s interaction and interactivity as they relate to their environment. The paper presents an exploration of the dynamism of culture, how particular culture dynamics of a particular society have evolved. The complicated process of the national culture formation contains the combination of various social factors influencing its structure and role in the community, changing cultural functions and the human place in them.
According to Levine the process of cultural development cannot be fixed in time. The conditions of the past and present social atmosphere influence the values and cultural representation of people in every social group. One of the most vivid examples of cultural change is considered to be the popularity transformation sticking to the views of the Shakespearean epoch. According to the cultural theory of the author, the perception of Shakespearean views and their cultural position in society has changed a lot. Modern people can not dive into the atmosphere of the world of art is popular a long time ago. He stated that the Shakespearean world and his masterpieces unite nowadays only people belonging to the elite class of the community. The readings of Shakespeare can be included only in the educatory sphere of people’s life.
Levine’s view of the Shakespearean culture representation in the modern world proves the fact that culture is considered to be the product of time correlation. Culture shows the reflection of the previous cultural views on the modern world through having different forms and perceptions by the community.
“Shakespeare’s relationship to the American people was always in flux, always changing. It is possible to isolate a period during which the increasing separation of Shakespeare from modern people becomes more evident” (Levine, 33).
Culture must be perceived as a system of symbols and meaning creation. Perhaps the most fitly insights on the culture that will run in tandem with the concept focus of this paper are those that present culture as a complex system and a set of symbols as well as meanings that even their originator’s contest, that are without boundaries, that are always in flux, and that interact and compete with one another. About the foregoing, it can be understood why and how such cultural transformation can be expected in any society. Revista Chicano et al (1982) outline that, “Culture provides pleasure which contributes to its reinforcement and perpetuation. If no longer satisfactory or pleasurable, change occurs. Culture changes through adaptation, borrowing and invention”
The scholars outline that culture constitutes that dynamic fabric formed by a people’s values, language, religion, beliefs among various other elements that define who the people are. The key thought in the foregoing is “dynamic”. Culture is not an object but is indeed a dynamic process that is effectually responsive to various forms of influence hence the dimensions of acculturation, cultural pluralism, multiculturalism, etc. What is notable is the extent of influence that the Shakespearean genre has had over various cultural forms in American Society and the world over. The explorations of American culture together with its transformation in particular respect to if cultural and social heritage underline the rapid change of the cultural position. In light of the foregoing, the essence of the paper is to zero in on the explorations of the cultural transformations in a particular society substantiating notions that culture is dynamic and is always subject to various forms of change, evolution, and mutations, etc. The paper will explore the change in the cultural role and regard for the Shakespearean population in American society.
“Not until the nineteenth century, however, did Shakespeare come into his own-presented ad recognized almost everywhere in the country.” (Levine, 16).
Levine outlines what he terms as the emergency of cultural hierarchy in America. In his outline, he mourns how art media commentators attempted to categorize art in hierarchy attempting to decide for the people what is best and not, what is contemporary and not. Levine attacks how art pacesetters attempt to regard particular art forms above others, failing to acknowledge that culture is dynamic and multifaceted. According to the author dissemination and the meaning of the culture in every society are under the impact of historical factors and material. Nevertheless, he sticks to the point that its people who form their culture with their own hands; people create the atmosphere they live in and contribute to the cultural system to adjust it to their time and epoch. This interpretation of the cultural position can be appropriately proved by the dramatic change of the Shakespearean views in modern society.
In light of the foregoing, the essence of the paper is to zero in on the explorations of the cultural transformations in a particular society substantiating notions that culture is dynamic and is always subject to various forms of change, evolution, and mutations, etc. The paper will explore the change in the cultural role and regard for the Shakespearean population in American society. A closer exploration of the dynamics in the regard to the artifact in contemporary American society will indicate a shift in the cultural regards of the role and value of the artifact.
Regarding the Shakespearean culture as a significant stage in the history of American society, the culture has experienced a paradigmatic shift which has seen the recognition and the regard of the artifact as one central cultural component of the entirety of the American society in disregard of the race and the aspect of ethnicity in multicultural America. It can be noted that the largely Christian American society has highly and appreciated and treasured the position of the Shakespearean culture.
This has been characterized by the shift from the treatment of the genre as the relic of the subservient culture group into the adoption of the entirety of the cultural and spiritual significance of the artifacts into the American social, cultural and spiritual fabric. The regard of Shakespearean culture as sentimental and exclusive to the cultural heritage of the American society has transformed through the years.
“Shakespeare’s popularity can be determined not only by the frequency of productions and the size of the audiences for them but also by the nature of the productions and the manner in which they were presented” (Levine, 13).
The transformation can be will deciphered in the premise of globalization which has opened up societies and rallied popular and common values of egalitarianism and the universal disdain and condemnation of tendencies that are in sharp violation of basic human rights. The significant note to make in the foregoing outlines is that is the thrust of the cultural transformation dimensions that have been experienced by the American society with particular regard to how the American society has shifted its regard of the Cultural heritage. Popular culture indicates that the world is rallying around values of equality and harmony. These are the pervading themes in modern world culture. The passing of time together with other factors constitute the change of a people’s values and norms which also culminate from the realities pertinent to people’s lives in a particular period. In this sense, it can be argued that the values of American society during the epochs of Shakespearean culture were largely shaped by moral views of ancient times. The values derived much from the then-contemporary ideologies and philosophies that scandalously held the modern society as more intellectually endowed and hence privileged over the past generation.
Thus, the paper managed to prove the fact that the process of culture formation is never fixed in time or any particular social group. There are a lot of factors influencing cultural development; people are the background of any cultural process of formation. Nevertheless, as it was shown in the example of the Shakespearean period, every significant step in the history of culture is always presented in the modern world. It is we who should influence our culture and contribute to its development moral values and national traditions to leave a print in the history of its future.
References
Levine, Lawrence. Highbrow / Lowbrow: The Emergence of Cultural Hierarchy in America, London, England.