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lord of the mark
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FUKCOV - Former United Kingdom Colony of Virginia
Dec 2000 time: 00:37
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quote: Originally posted by Spiffor
Nope. While Britain has produced some culture during the 19th century (and much less so than Germany or France), the thing that made English into the international language, and English-speaking culture the "default" one in the world, is the domination of the US on the west and its huge pop-culture machine.
If it wasn't for the US, the only hints of English-speaking culture we foreigners would get are Shakespeare, Edgar Poe, the Beatles and Harry Potter. And nobody but scholars would read the books in English anyway |
If there had been no British empire to spread English so far in africa, South Asia, and to a lesser extent in the mideast and east asia, it would have been that much harder for the US to be as monolingual abroad post1945 as it was. If english was far from dominant in the period of UK political dominance, nonetheless post-45 English dominance was built on the firm foundation that the UK had left. We couldnt have done it alone
oh, and French painting RULZ the 19th century, but Brit lit rulz. I mean ive read Zola, for ex (Germinal - in translation) and unless hes much better in the original, he doesnt hold a candle to, say, Charlotte Bronte. And thats just Brit lit. If you take ALL 19th c English lit, including Yank lit, you get an even bigger power house.
You also place too much emphasis on popcult in post-45 US dominance. You leave out for example, US dominance of science in the post war era. Also even social thought. Forget angloamerican liberalism - we had the best Marxists, Freudians, etc thanks to all the German Jewish refugees in New York.
Last edited by lord of the mark on 24-08-2005 at 22:24
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