European cultural papers 1
Ancient Greek mythology, the cradle of European culture
Ancient Greek mythology was born in the 8th century BC, and it has spread to this day, and it exudes infinite charm in the long river of history. Ancient Greek mythology describes in detail the myths of gods, nature and universe in the hearts of Greek people since ancient times. Its spread mainly depends on the long-term oral tradition of the ancient Greek people. Later, it was mainly passed down through Homer's epic "Homer's Epic" and ancient Greek poetry, drama and philosophical works. Ancient Greek mythology contains the most important story about the creation of the world by the gods and the relationship between the gods and the masses, which is the early information about Greek mythology. Ancient Greek mythology not only nourishes the cultural development of Greece, but also provides an indelible impetus and foundation for the development of western culture in later generations.
First, the source of the development of ancient European literature and art
Ancient Greek mythology is the source and soil of the rise of ancient European literature and art, among the 34 tragedies handed down from ancient Greece by Aeschylus, Sophocles and euripides, 33 are based on mythology. Now people can collect a large number of primitive ancient Greek myths in the book History by the ancient Greek historian Herodotus. At the same time, ancient Greek mythology brought endless material resources and creative imagination to later Roman literature. For example, the images of the gods in ancient Roman mythology are the same as those in ancient Greek mythology, but with different names. For example, Cupid's Greek name is Venus and Rome's name is Aphrodite; In Greek mythology, the name of God of War is Ares, and the name of Rome is Mars. During the slavery society in ancient Greece, ancient Europe made great achievements in all aspects of drama and literary theory. Among them, Plato and Aristotle are famous writers and philosophers in ancient Greece. As we all know, Plato is known as the founder of European idealism philosophy. His works involve telepathic propositions in the fields of philosophy, literature and art, which have a far-reaching influence on the formation of later literary theories. Aristotle summed up the experience of Greek literary and artistic creation and created an independent and incisive new field of ancient literary and artistic research. Such as the relationship between literature and art and reality, the essence of tragedy, etc., formed their own independent and perfect thoughts. His book Poetics has played an important and decisive role in the development of western literary theory.
Second, the origin of European Renaissance thought
Greek and Roman mythology is a world cultural treasure, which was preserved and circulated by later manuscripts, missionaries, scholars and libraries, and finally introduced to Europe. During the European Renaissance, it deeply influenced the development of European culture. It is generally believed that western culture originated from Greek culture and Greek culture, and Greek culture refers to Greek culture and Hebrew culture. Ancient Greek myths and thoughts have become an important source of thought in Europe from the Middle Ages to the modern times. The guiding ideology theory of the European Renaissance? Humanism? In fact, the source of ancient Greek mythology is humanism. It can be said that the Renaissance arose under the slogan of reviving ancient Greek and Roman culture. What are the ancient Greek myths famous for? God and man are the same? The characteristics of people-centered thinking. In ancient Greek mythology, God is not perfect, and God has the same feelings, thoughts and inner weaknesses as people. Besides, what is a myth? Hero? In his limited life journey, he pursued freedom, victory and ideals unremittingly. This fully embodies the people-oriented thinking. Humanism in the European Renaissance is the ideological system and world outlook formed by the emerging bourgeoisie in the struggle against feudalism and church, and it is also the central idea of bourgeois progressive literature in this period. It advocates all people-oriented, opposes the authority of God, and emphasizes? People? Is the center of The Theory of Everything; Advocating the liberation of personality, human beings have the right to pursue a happy life; Oppose ignorance. For example, Boccaccio affirmed human dignity and real life in decameron, advocated the liberation of human personality, and showed the awakening of humanism. Petrarch put forward in his works? People? With what? God? The difference between concept and certainty? People? Should dominate real life and the development of the times.
Secondly, ancient Greek mythology nourished and enriched the artistic development of the European Renaissance. Ancient Greek mythology aroused widespread interest in Europe in the later period, providing a large number of creative materials for a large number of poets and artists. The English romantic poet Shelley's "Apollo Hymn" has always been dazzling in the poetry world. Michelangelo Buonarroti's representative sculpture "David" and the giant zenith painting "Genesis" both inherit the heroic image in ancient Greek mythology and have a strong color of Greek mythology. Da? Leonardo da Vinci, on the other hand, created the world-famous Mona Lisa with a mythical theme, which became an immortal treasure of human culture.
Third, the treasure house of European literature development.
Ancient Greek mythology has exerted an indelible influence on the development of European literature. As Marx said:? Greek mythology is not only a treasure house of Greek art, but also a soil for spreading. ? Ancient Greek mythology is like a huge treasure house, full of glittering ideas and vivid fairy tales. This provided valuable creative inspiration and material for later western writers. Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet's Hamlet. What a great job people are! How lofty the ideal is and how infinite the strength is! How correct and excellent the appearance and behavior are, and how angelic the behavior is! On understanding, how like a god! The essence of the universe, the primate of everything! ? Dante described how Ulysses began in The Divine Comedy. Complete the story of his ten-year journey and adventure. Byron once wrote poems in praise of Prometheus who stole fire for mankind. In Byron's works, Prometheus is full of vigor and vitality, and becomes the embodiment of tenacious will and strength to resist oppression. ? Giant! You are destined to toss and turn between pain and will. Although God is deliberately against you, how can your perseverance against rape and your indomitable soul destroy your courage and perseverance? Shelley's opera "Prometheus Liberated" eulogizes the image of a human hero who has made unremitting efforts for freedom, shows his yearning for revolution with vivid description and broad feelings, and has a strong sense of modern consciousness and literary responsibility. Whitman, a famous American poet, once directly expressed his admiration for ancient Greek mythology: the myth is really great! ? In fact, the ancient Greek myth stories are tortuous and vivid, and the characters are full and vivid. Many important topics encountered in the process of human development, such as peace and war, freedom and bondage, love and ideal, morality and decay, are actually reflected in ancient Greek mythology.
To sum up, ancient Greek mythology has exerted an indelible influence on all aspects of western culture. To truly understand western culture, we must first understand ancient Greek mythology. In western society, people generally have such an understanding that the understanding of Greek mythology has always been a sign to measure a person's education level. Greek mythology is an extremely important part of the origin and development of the whole western culture. In order to truly understand western culture, Greek mythology is a compulsory introductory course. Ancient Greek mythology is the spiritual power and cradle of the origin of the whole western culture and history.
References:
[1] Xing Chihong. Talk about ancient Greek mythology? Gay? , English learning, 1999
[2] You Jiazhong. History of foreign literature. Guangxi Normal University Press, 2004
Papers on European culture II
Cultural Connotation of European Crane
This paper aims to collect European crane culture, summarize the main cultural connotations of European cranes, and conclude that the cultural connotations of European cranes can be divided into three categories: positive cultural connotation, negative cultural connotation and neutral cultural connotation, and analyze the causes of neutral cultural connotation with more cultural content, which are mainly caused by European aesthetic standards and European religious beliefs.
Keywords: Europe; Crane; Cultural connotation
There are many levels of culture, including the culture of all mankind, the culture of various nationalities and societies. The same nation and society will produce different cultures of different nationalities, different societies and different regions because of different regions and beliefs. In China, cranes have a beautiful cultural connotation of longevity and auspiciousness, but in Europe, the cultural connotation carried by cranes is different from that of China.
First, the cultural implication
In Europe, from the perspective of emotional color, there are three main cultural connotations of cranes, one is positive cultural connotation such as good wishes, the other is negative cultural connotation such as bad luck, and the third is neutral cultural connotation such as reproduction, family pedigree and converts.
The first is the cultural implication of Hezan, that is, good wishes. No matter which nationality, spring is the beginning of people's good wishes, expectations and hopes, especially in the farming era, when spring blooms and people start sowing, the first bird that flies back will become a symbol of spring. However, due to the difference in latitude, the first bird that appears in spring in different regions is different.
In China, the bird that indicates the arrival of spring is the swallow, especially in the south of China. The time of planting rice depends entirely on the time when swallows return to their nests, and the folk song "Little Swallow" spreads all over the streets. And ducks, like poems? Spring river plumbing duck prophet? .
The Bulgarian spring in Europe is also the time when bird migration returns to his nest, and cranes play a central role in it: when the first crane appears, it means that spring has really come! Therefore, in Bulgarian legend, the crane is a symbol of spring. The spring brought by cranes makes people realize that this is the season of sowing and the hope of the new year, so cranes are duty-bound to carry people's good wishes for the new year.
Secondly, the derogatory cultural implication of cranes is bad luck. Death is the most terrible misfortune, especially in ancient times when productivity was underdeveloped. If a family unfortunately loses a labor force, it will mean that the family may be in trouble. In China, crows are regarded as ominous birds, which have the smell of death, because they eat dead human flesh. In Japan, because of its solemn black fur, it is regarded as a god bird by the Japanese and hunting is not allowed.
In rural Denmark in Europe, cranes mean bad luck. If cranes nest on the roof of other people's homes, someone in this family will die before the end of the year, and other farmers will stay away. Casualties will make poor families face embarrassment and even fall into a quagmire.
Finally, in addition to the positive and negative cultural connotations of cranes, European cranes contain more neutral cultural connotations and less subjective preferences of people, such as fertility, family lineage, converts and so on.
One is fertility. The fertility problem has been bothering many parents. In the face of children's questions, people try to explain them simply, but they don't involve reproductive content. In western culture, the white crane is a symbol of fertility.
In Victorian times, it was difficult for people to discuss the details of human reproduction, especially in the face of children? Where am I from? In order to avoid the embarrassment of discussing such issues, I am different from China. You fished it out of the river? 、? You picked it up by the side of the road? Wait, what's the strategy of westerners? The crane brought you to us. ? This habit comes from the imagination that newborn babies can enter the house through the chimney. Therefore, the image of a crane with a baby in its mouth became a very common popular culture at that time. Because newborn babies have pink spots on their eyelids, between their eyes, on their upper lips and behind their necks, they are sometimes called? Crane bite? (Stork bites), but in fact this is a developing vein and will soon disappear.
The second is family lineage. For a family, reproduction is the most important thing, and the establishment of the family system is conducive to mutual assistance between the same family. Family pedigree represents the surname of status and rank, and has a huge family, especially the royal and aristocratic lineage. From the perspective of resisting foreign enemies, members of the same family are more likely to unite closely; In the long run, it is easier for members of the same family to support each other and control various important fields of a city or even a country; From the perspective of external development, families at the same level are easy to achieve balance and unity. From the perspective of language development, because English is differentiated from old French, we can see that the old French pie de grue means the foot of a crane, while the pedigree of English means blood. It can be concluded that in ancient Europe, crane's feet symbolized family lineage.
The third is conversion. Religion is the spiritual belief in Europe, and a specific person or thing will become the image or leader of religion for some special reason. What do Hebrews think cranes are? A convert? That is, a pious, God-fearing, observant, fair and kind woman. In fact, cranes have become the female images of the Hasidic movement in Judaism. Because devout religious people have noticed two kinds of survival phenomena of cranes in nature, one is to take care of young cranes; First, in a fire, the crane will choose to die with the nest instead of giving up the nest. These two phenomena of existence conform to the religious understanding of kindness and piety.
Second, the reasons for the neutral cultural implication of cranes
From the classification and analysis of the cultural connotation of cranes in Europe, we can see that in Europe, the cultural connotation of cranes focuses on neutral cultural connotation, which is mainly caused by two aspects: one is the aesthetic standards of Europeans, and the other is the religious beliefs of Europeans.
First of all, Europe doesn't have much affection for birds with too bright colors. For example, peacock is regarded as a symbol of happiness and good luck in China, so people often use it as a metaphor for beautiful people or things. Europeans, on the other hand, think that peacocks walk on their high horse, their heads often swing and show off their beauty from time to time. This is a sign of pride and vanity. The second explanation of peacock in American Traditional Dictionary is: a vain person who likes to show off; A dude (a vain, self-expressive person; A man who loves to dress up). Peacocks are regarded as bad birds in European culture. The owl, which symbolizes bad luck in China, is a symbol of wisdom in Europe and the embodiment of courage and perseverance, such as being as smart as an owl. Therefore, cranes with white bodies, black necks and red crowns are not as gorgeous as peacocks, nor will they be given too many derogatory meanings, nor will they be as monotonous as owls, nor will they be given too many praises. All the cultural images of European cranes are mainly neutral cultural meanings.
Secondly, European faith was born out of Hebrew Christianity, that is, Judaism, which preached self-sacrifice and believed in prophets. Maimonide put forward in his list of Jewish beliefs 13:? All the words of the prophet are true and correct. Moses is the greatest prophet, and his fable is true. ? Clearly expressed the views of the Jewish prophet. The prophet asked the converts to follow unconditionally. Therefore, the two survival phenomena of cranes-caring for small cranes and living with the nest * * * have attracted the attention of Christians, who believe that these two behaviors of cranes are in line with the religious understanding of kindness, self-sacrifice and piety, and also conform to the image of converts.
Third, summary.
Through the classification and analysis of the cultural connotation of European cranes, mainly from the perspective of emotional color. First, the cultural connotation of praise is like good wishes, the cultural connotation of derogatory meaning is like bad luck, and the neutral cultural connotation is like reproduction, family pedigree and converts. Among them, the neutral cultural implication contains more cultural contents. Therefore, this paper mainly analyzes the causes of the neutral cultural connotation that carries more cultural content from two aspects: one is the European aesthetic standard of color, and the other is the European religious belief. Compared with the traditional crane culture in China, which is healthy, long-lived, virtuous, auspicious and beautiful, the crane culture in Europe is more objective and neutral, which better reflects the multi-level nature of culture. In teaching Chinese as a foreign language, facing foreign students with different backgrounds, especially when it comes to the conflict between China's traditional culture and western culture, it helps teachers to teach cultural vocabulary from different cultural perspectives, and at the same time, it can expand China for foreign students.