“Culture” — it is a word that you can hear somewhere in your neighborhood, you can encounter in some courses in your school, you can observe from your favorite movie, and you can read from your best-loved book. It is basically defined as the set of customs, traditions, beliefs, roles, principles, experiences, and objects that are obtained by people from one generations passed down to another. Additionally, you can see the culture of a particular person or groups by the way they act, dress, speak, and behave. It is due to the belief that cultural norms set out the acceptable actions in the society.
What could be the real relationship of culture and literature? The former has already defined, so let’s get to know the latter. Literature is a collection of written works that are past down from one generation to another either through verbally or non-verbally. These remarkable works made up of words are considered to have great and long-lasting artistic value.
As per mentioned above, objects also have are also considered culture, and books and other forms of literature are considered to have great cultural merit. Books are produced by brilliant people with the burning passion to write, express, and make a change. One defining trait about novels and other forms of literature is that they are being influenced by the culture and belief of the author. Hence, it is essential for readers and critics to include looking into the cultural context of the book or such.
Things that are products of a particular culture showcase the different norms, customs, etc. in an apparent, unpremeditated, and spontaneous manner. Hence, literature is certainly a great platform to manifest the said aspects in a method that has deeply captured the culture of a particular person or place.
Remembrance of Meals Past is a food fiction book by Anita Legsdin. The Latvian ancestry of the author and her Eastern Europe upbringing has definitely become apparent in each tale contained in this remarkable anthology. Every dish featured in the stories reflects on Latvia — from the raw ingredients to the final product. Legsdin has successfully showed and conveyed the rich cultural heritage and cuisine of Latvia by using her talent in writing. What made this work more promising is the way the author smoothly featured Latvian cuisine without directly informing her readers that she’s a Latvian descent. Hence, the culture was carried out naturally.
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter written by Erika L. Sanchez is also another work that highlights culture, specifically the Mexican culture. This National Book Award finalist was published in 2017 by Knopf Books for Young Readers. The main protagonist’s family is immigrants from Mexico. Thus, Mexican terms are all around the story, such as Amá and Apá, There are also tildes in most of the terms, even the main character’s name, Juliá, has a tilde. The Mexican culture where parents tend to become seriously strict is also showcased in the story. There is also a part of the story where the protagonist reconnected to her Mexican roots by going to Mexico and meeting her grandma, which added to the highlighting of the cultural aspects of the story.
Furthermore, the relationship between culture and literature is found behind the fact that the latter reflects greatly on the former. These promising written works showcase the concepts and ideas of individuals that are set in different places and times and are written in a creative way depict the rich cultural heritage of a particular group or location. These two aspects are firmly intertwined with one another. Over the course of time, literature has always represented culture.
Literature serves as the means for expressing essential values and principles and features the way of living of individuals or groups with these beliefs, as well as the development of their culture and norms and cultural life. The influence brought by culture to literature helps readers to get to know the diverse and rich cultures of countries and people. Books and other literary works stand as vessels that bring readers to different timeframes and settings to explore and discover the amazing and diverse worlds. Even though these worlds are mixed with imagination and creativity, literature never fails to connect these stories to the real world by inflicting the cultural heritage of the author, another person, or a particular place.
The Happy Hammock 