What is Culture?

DEFINITION:

Culture “has much to do with formal analysis of literary texts because (they) are not merely cultural by virtue of reference to the wold beyond themselves; they are cultural by virtue of social values and contexts that they have themselves successfully absorbed.” Texts “are virtually incomprehensible when removed from their immediate surroundings. To recover (them), we need to reconstruct the situation in which they were produced” (Lentricchia & McLaughlin 227).

“In a state of nature, humankind survives by directly struggling with the environment in time, the elements of that struggle—practices, habits, customs, beliefs, traditions—become institutions, the body of which is known as culture” (Haromn & Holman 138-139).

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN TO ME?

Because the American culture has traditionally been that people in love marry, many stories show a couple’s devotion to one another through marriage implying a happy ending. Because many Canadians traditionally have not seen marriage as the only indicator of a happy ending, not all their stories end with marriage.

The American culture is changing in their belief today.