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High marks seek articles introducing British culture in English.
1, Introduction to British Humor

humorous

It is difficult to generalize the humor of the Renaissance, because the things that cause laughter vary from country to country, from language to social class. However, in all parts of Europe, laughter is regarded as an important and even indispensable part of life. Scholars often quote the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, who described people as people who could laugh. Scholars of drama, medicine and rhetoric discussed the nature of humor and laughter. In the field of drama and fiction, the Renaissance produced some of the greatest comic writers of all time.

Humor on the stage. Throughout the Renaissance, comedy played an important role in both formal and informal performances. Renaissance festivals usually feature comedy performances, which makes a mockery of the existing social order. The most important of these festivals is Carnival, which is the carnival period before Lent (40 working days before Easter). Carnival all over Europe includes comedy performances. The celebrations in France include "fool's play" called "sotties", while those in Poland include vulgar comedies in realistic style. Songs with mocking or obscene lyrics are also part of some carnival activities.

Some early dramas are characterized by political humor. French King Louis XII of France encourages political comedy because it helps him to understand what is happening in China. Other comedies are based on humor of ordinary characters and themes, such as an unfaithful wife cheating on her stupid husband. Although most of these early farce were written by unknown authors, some famous poets in France and England also wrote in this style. In Italy, a farce called comedy appeared in the 1500 s. Comedy also contains the standard role types in typical scenes. This type of drama is characterized by body movements and a wide range of comedies, with plots ranging from quite realistic to crazy. Humanistic comedy provides a more informative choice for burlesque. Renaissance humanists imitated the comedies of ancient Roman playwrights Protu and Terrence. This classic comedy originated in Italy and spread all over Europe. Italian politician and writer Nicolo Machiavelli created an obscene comedy "Ma 'an Drakegan", which is widely regarded as a masterpiece. Another outstanding work of this style is Ralph Royster Deuster by British playwright Nicholas Judel.

In addition to stage performances, humor also has a fixed place in the royal and aristocratic courts, such as clowns. This fool, wearing a suit and a hat with bells, is the only person in the court who is allowed to laugh at anyone and anything. Fools often appear as characters in literary works, such as william shakespeare's plays. However, the function of a fool is not always strictly funny. In many works, he is more used for guidance than entertainment.

Humor on paper. Like the drama of that period, the literature in the1400s and1500s was mainly comedies. Renaissance humanists often collected humorous materials from classical Greek and Roman literature. They especially like to collect short Latin works called facetiae, which can be jokes, serious stories, riddles or moral fables. Humanists usually don't explain why they choose a particular story as a set of jokes. Some people, including the Italian poet Petrarch, borrowed a lot from Cicero, an ancient Roman writer, about what is interesting.

Humanists also like to create their own humor-especially for satire. Dutch scholar Desiderius Erasmus is especially good at using humor in his satires. One of his most interesting works, "The Abbot * and the learned lady," ends with the laughter of a witty and educated lady who outsmarts the rude and ignorant priest. /kloc-German and French humanists in the 0/500 s created some extremely funny satires by deliberately writing mock letters in poor Latin.

Other Renaissance writers turned to poetry to create comedies. One of the favorite forms of Italian comedy writers is the imitation of epic, which is an imitation of a highly respected literary form. Orlando Furioso (Mad Roland), a famous poem by Italian poet Ludovico ARIOSTO, contains elements simulating epic style. Another famous simulated epic is Chess by Jan Kochanovsky, the most famous poet in the Polish Renaissance. English or French poets don't seem to use this style, but they laugh at the conventions of other poetic forms. For example, Petrarch set certain standards for love poems, including praising the beloved with exaggerated words. Later writers made fun of Petrarch's style, such as Shakespeare's famous sonnet My mistress's eyes are nothing like the sun. "

During the Renaissance, humor appeared in novels and short stories. Miguel de Cervantes and Fran of Spain? Ois RABELAIS of France incorporated humor into novels that are still widely read today. Most French comedians write short stories, often inspired by Italy. For example, Margaret of Navarra wrote several comedy stories in her septet based on the famous work decameron by Italian writer Giovanni Boccaccio (1353). Some French stories, such as how to succeed, a collection of novels by Berhol de Ville (written about 16 12), are very obscene.

In Britain, a popular form of humor is a joke, a very short story with a punch line (much like a modern joke). Writers collected these comic stories into jestbooks, similar to the Italian facetiae collection. /kloc-In the late 1950s, jester books became popular in Germany, and some examples appeared in Spain and Italy.

Humor in visual arts. Comic elements in Renaissance literature also appeared in the art of this period. Art often uses humor to convey moral or religious information. During the Protestant Reformation, Protestant leaders distributed illustrated pamphlets, depicting their enemies as animals, or playing the devil as a Catholic monk, just like a musical. However, not all humorous arts have meanings. In the late1520s, the artist Giulio Romano painted a room in a palace in mantua, which contained lifelike statues of giants. They seemed to be knocking down the walls and columns of the room. This kind of humorous illusion, called trompe l'oeil, was very popular at that time.

In the early period of 1500, artists began to paint in a style called grotesque, which was based on ancient Roman murals. Weird people often depict humans and animals in an absurd way, with leaves, flowers and curly lines where arms and legs should be. The famous Italian artist Michelangelo Buonarroti created several works of this style. Many strange things still exist on the walls of museums and Italian palaces. Humor also appeared in Renaissance sculptures. Popoli Garden in Florence, Italy, was built in A.D. 1500. There are some funny statues in it, such as a fat dwarf sitting on a turtle.

2. British street culture

Hip-hop is a cultural movement, which developed in new york in the 1970s, and it is mainly popular among African-Americans and Latin Americans. DJ Afrik a Bambaataa summarized the five pillars of hip-hop culture: MCing, DJing, breaking, Graffiti and Knowledge. Other elements include rhythmic boxing, hip-hop fashion and slang. Since it first appeared in the Bronx, the lifestyle of hip-hop culture has spread all over the world. When hip-hop music began to appear, it was based on the fact that disc jockeys created rhythms by taking a circular break on two turntables (a small part of the song emphasized percussion mode). Later, there appeared "rap" (a rhythmic singing style) and beatboxinging, which is a vocal technique mainly used to imitate percussion elements of music and various technical effects of hip-hop DJ. Among the followers of this new music, there is a primitive dance form and a special clothing style. In the historical process of culture, these elements have undergone considerable improvement and development.

Musicians usually think that the typical characteristics of pop music are as follows:

Focus on a single song or single, not an extended work or album.

Designed to appeal to the general audience, not to a specific subculture or ideology.

Emphasize the "artistic" quality of craft rather than form.

Pay more attention to recording, production and technology than live performance.

Reflect the existing trend rather than the trend of progress and development

The main media of pop music is songs, which are usually between two and a half minutes and three and a half minutes in length, and are generally marked by consistent and remarkable rhythm elements, mainstream styles and simple traditional structures. Common variations include verse-chorus form and 32-bar form, focusing on the connection between melody and catchy words, and chorus that contrasts with verse in melody, rhythm and harmony. Beats and melodies tend to be simple, with only limited harmony accompaniment. The lyrics of modern pop songs usually focus on simple themes-usually love and romantic relationships-although there are obvious exceptions.

Pop music is a type of music developed from 1950' s, and it is a softer alternative to rock music and later rock music. It focuses on commercial recording, usually for the young market, usually through relatively short love songs as a medium. Although these basic elements of this genre remain quite stable, pop music has absorbed the influence of most other pop music forms, especially the development of rock music, and made new changes on the basis of existing themes by using key technological innovations.

3. British classical culture

Gothic

Gothism, Gothism, or Gothism (Swedish: G? Ticism) is a name that is considered to be the Swedish cultural movement. The founders of this movement are Nikolai Lagvardi, brothers Johannes Magnus, horace Magnus and Olof Rudback? .. they all believe that the Goths first lived in Sweden. This belief continued to dominate in the17th century, when Sweden became a powerful country after the Thirty Years' War, but lost most of its dominance in the18th century. In the early19th century, it was revived by national romanticism, this time with vikings as heroes.

The name comes from Jordan's description of the Scandinavian Goth urheimat, and the Swedish Goths believe that the Goths originated in Sweden. Some Danish scholars also tried to equate Goths with Jutes, however, these views did not trigger a wide-ranging cultural movement in Danish society as in Sweden. Different from the Swedes, the Danes in this era did not put forward their political legitimacy according to the assertion that their country was the original home of the Goths and that conquering the Roman Empire was the proof of their own country's military courage and strength in history.

The Gothic movement prides itself on the Gothic tradition, believing that ostrogoths and their king Theodoric the Great, who was in power in the Roman Empire, were of Scandinavian descent. This sense of pride was expressed as early as the medieval chronicles, and the chroniclers described the Goths as the ancestors of Scandinavians. This sense of pride also permeated the works of the Swedish writer Historia de Omnibus Gothorum Seounum Que Regibus and his brother horace Magnus. Both of these works have had a great influence on Swedish contemporary scholarship.

In the17th century, Danes and Swedes competed to collect and publish Icelandic manuscripts, Norwegian legends and two Edas. In Sweden, Icelandic manuscripts have become part of the myth of origin and are regarded as evidence that the greatness and heroism of ancient Greeks have been passed down from generation to generation. This sense of pride reached its peak in the publication of Olaus Rudback's "Elle Mannheim of Atlantis" (1679–1702), in which he claimed that Sweden was equal to Atlantis.

vitoria style

Victorian fashions include all kinds of fashions and trends in British culture. These fashions and trends appeared and became increasingly prominent throughout the Victorian era and Victorian rule, and this period will last from June 1837 to 1 month/901. Covering nearly two-thirds of the19th century, the 63-year rule witnessed numerous changes in fashion. These changes include, but are not limited to, changes in clothing, architecture, literature, decoration and visual arts.

Various Victorian buildings:

The style conceived in Victorian times

British arts and crafts movement

industrial construction

Painted lady

Queen Anne (Stryker)

Second Reich

Jacobson (pioneer of Queen Anne's style)

New Grec

The Renaissance

Romanesque revival (including Richardson Romanticism)

[Editor] Other sports popular in this period

Although not unique to the Victorian era and part of the renaissance that began before that era, these styles are closely related to the Victorian era, because a large number of examples were erected during that period.

Gothic revival

Italian style

neoclassicism

Title classification:

Nobles are divided into five grades, arranged in descending order:

Duke is from Latin dux, leader. Created on 1337.

Marquis comes from French Marquis, which is a derivative of march or March. This refers to the borders between England and Wales and Scotland ("marches"), and this relationship is more obvious in the female form: the marquise. Created on 1385.

Earl is from Old English or Anglo-Saxon eorl, a military leader. This meaning may have been influenced by the old Scandinavian jarl, which means a free-born soldier or nobleman, while in Denmark, so it has a modern meaning. Because the word had no female counterpart in Old English or Old Norwegian, the word "Countess" was used, which came from Latin. Created around 800- 1000.

Viscount comes from Latin vicecomes, deputy count. Created on 1440.

Baron comes from the ancient Germanic Baro freeman. Created on 1066.

In Scotland, the fifth rank is called Lord of Parliament, because barons are the holders of feudal nobles, not nobles. Although a baron has a hereditary title, he is not an aristocrat. Knights, ladies and other holders of non-hereditary British honors are not nobles either.

For nobles, the forms of various titles are (rank) (title name) or (rank) (title name). The title of a book can be a place name or a surname. The exact usage depends on the rank of nobility and other general considerations. Duke always uses it. Marquez and Earl Si Tong named after place names are commonly used, while those named after family names are usually not used. Viscount, Baron and Lords do not use it. However, there are several exceptions to this rule. For example, Scottish deputy titles theoretically include of, but in practice they are usually cancelled. (Therefore, "Viscount Falkland" is usually called "Viscount Falkland". )

4. Overview of Britain

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (commonly known as the United Kingdom, Britain or Britain) is a sovereign country, located on the northwest coast of the European continent. It is an island country, spanning islands including Great Britain, northeastern Ireland and many small islands. Northern Ireland is the only region in Britain with a land border, bordering the Republic of Ireland. In addition to land borders, Britain is also surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel and the Irish Sea. Great Britain, the largest island, is connected with France through the English Channel Tunnel.

The United Kingdom is a unified country with a constitutional monarchy, which consists of four countries: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. It is managed by a parliamentary system, with the seat of government in the capital London, but there are three decentralized state administrative agencies in Belfast, Cardiff and Edinburgh, the capitals of Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland. The Channel Islands of Jersey and Guernsey and the Isle of Man are Crown Dependencies and do not belong to Britain. Britain has 14 overseas territories, which are all remnants of the British Empire. At the peak of 1922, it occupied almost a quarter of the world's land area and was the largest empire in history. In the language, culture and legal systems of many former colonies, the influence of Britain can continue to be observed.

Britain is a developed country, the sixth largest economy in the world in terms of nominal GDP and the seventh largest economy in terms of purchasing power parity. At 19 and the beginning of the 20th century, it was the first industrialized country and the most important power in the world, but the economic cost of the two world wars and the decline of the empire in the second half of the 20th century weakened its leading role in global affairs. However, Britain is still a big country with strong economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence. It is a nuclear power, and its defense expenditure ranks fourth in the world. It is a member of the European Union, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and a member of the Commonwealth, the Group of Eight, the OECD, NATO and the World Trade Organization.

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