{"id":909,"date":"2018-03-16T15:15:27","date_gmt":"2018-03-16T15:15:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/?p=909"},"modified":"2018-03-16T15:16:01","modified_gmt":"2018-03-16T15:16:01","slug":"909","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/2018\/03\/16\/909\/","title":{"rendered":"Some Thoughts on National Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wow I haven\u2019t written in a while now. It\u2019s been a hectic few weeks with the end to this half of the semester, but I wanted to get a post in before Spring Break just to keep things ticking over.<\/p>\n

Having just finished my short essay, I think I\u2019m now becoming more certain than ever about the transnational nature of art. And within the context of that, I think there is scope for us to redefine what we consider a national culture.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
I know it’s a bit of a jump, but stay with me.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On Romeo and Juliet<\/h3>\n

William Shakespeare, right. A national icon, quintessentially British. And Romeo and Juliet. One of his most famous plays, possibly the world\u2019s most famous love story. Also quintessentially British. So what would you say if I told you that an Italian author called Luigi da Porto wrote a story called Romeo e Giulietta <\/em>about fifty years before Shakespeare \u2013 and the storylines are pretty much the same. Shakespeare adds some embellishments, fleshes out a few of the characters (like Mercutio and Tybalt), but overall, it\u2019s the same piece.<\/p>\n

Interesting that. Other sources for the play include Masuccio Salernitano\u2019s Mariotto e Ganozza and even the story of Pyramus and Thisbe from Ovid\u2019s metamorphoses. All of a sudden, this quintessentially British play is looking a lot less British and a lot more Italian.<\/p>\n

Stories and creativity are not tied down by national boundaries \u2013 they are fluid, and can easily move across these boundaries as and when. Of course, a piece of work can have national significance, but it is simply impossible to accredit it or to pin it down within the boundaries of any particular nation.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Not so British NOW are you big Shakey?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On National Culture<\/h3>\n

I think that this point is very important \u2013 when dissecting aspects of national culture, the importance of transnational influences immediately becomes very clear. Without the transnational influences that Shakespeare had access to, living in sixteenth century London, his cannon of work may have been very different (and dare I say, a lot more limited). Shakespeare\u2019s works have been translated in to over 100 languages, and are performed worldwide, which means it\u2019s probably fair to say that his work has global significance. It was influenced by transnational exchanges, and it instigates transnational exchanges as well.<\/p>\n

In order to keep a national culture moving forward, it is important to encourage engagement with transnational influences, both for the good of the nation, and in some way for the good of the whole world.<\/p>\n

With Brexiteers trumpeting the UK\u2019s removal from planet earth, I think that the UK is falling in to a trap \u2013 a misunderstanding \u2013 that British culture is somewhat autarkical. That what makes Britain great comes from within, and that Britain doesn\u2019t need external influences. People say \u2018we are the nation of The Beatles, of Isaac Newton, of Shakespeare. These things all show the power of our amazing nation. We don\u2019t need to be outward facing because we have these things within us.\u2019<\/p>\n

What we must always remember is the very reason that these things are within us \u2013 because we faced outwards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wow I haven\u2019t written in a while now. It\u2019s been a hectic few weeks with the end to this half of the semester, but I wanted to get a post in before Spring Break just to keep things ticking over.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s5wNtZ-909","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=909"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":913,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909\/revisions\/913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/doing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}