Help please!

:confused: I have to write a preliminary thesis for my AP english class on Great Expectations. The prompt is "does literature shape or reflect the culture in which it was written?" Basically i need to know about the time period it is set in and how Great Expectations does either of those two. Any help at all would be greatly appreciated!!

hullo.
I don't have time just yet although I loved that piece of literature.
But I know someone who knows just everything, I think so anyway.
You can pm Xamonas and ask him.
cheers.

Okay, basically, Great Expectations and pretty much Dickens in general takes place in the Victorian Era, i.e. pretty much the latter half of the 19th century. The important aspects of this in relation to the novel, at least as far as I can tell, is primarily in relation to class distinctions during that period. The specifics of the research, though, you'll have to do yourself. Lotsa luck,

Robin

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Originally Posted by Bojangles5788

:confused: I have to write a preliminary thesis for my AP english class on Great Expectations. The prompt is "does literature shape or reflect the culture in which it was written?" Basically i need to know about the time period it is set in and how Great Expectations does either of those two. Any help at all would be greatly appreciated!!

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That's a rather large question which could draw a lot of dispute. Here's my opinion:
Very rarely in history has literature actually shaped culture. Perhaps Pilgim's Progress and Paradise Lost might qualify, but even then I think they are reflecting their times. So given this dichotomy I side with reflecting. But it's more complicated than that. You can have two authors who live in the same culture at the same time and have very different notions of how their culture is presented in their art. Shakespeare and Ben Jonson for instance; perhaps Dickens and Thackery and Emily Bronte in the Victorian era. So what do I make of that? I think that art neither shapes nor reflects it's culture; it's the artist particular view of his times and ideas.

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Originally Posted by Virgil

That's a rather large question which could draw a lot of dispute. Here's my opinion:
Very rarely in history has literature actually shaped culture. Perhaps Pilgim's Progress and Paradise Lost might qualify, but even then I think they are reflecting their times. So given this dichotomy I side with reflecting. But it's more complicated than that. You can have two authors who live in the same culture at the same time and have very different notions of how their culture is presented in their art. Shakespeare and Ben Jonson for instance; perhaps Dickens and Thackery and Emily Bronte in the Victorian era. So what do I make of that? I think that art neither shapes nor reflects it's culture; it's the artist particular view of his times and ideas.

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What about the Romantic poets (Blake, Shelley...), didn't they have some impact on their industrialized world?

Check: http://pinkmonkey.com/booknotes/monk...atExpect07.asp

It's actually quite easy to look this up. Also, some websites describing the theme will mention the historical significance.