ENGL 105A Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Alastair Sim, Puritans, Anthesis
Document Summary
Lecture # 8 2-2-17 shylock and the spirit of christmas: from shylock to scrooge. Christmas in popular culture: mediates between commercial in venice and belmont as pre commercial. Suggest opposed values of a commercial v. pre commercial world. The invention of christmas: 16c: christmas as saturnalia. Lasted for 12 days, feast, wasn"t really a religious holiday, roots in old roman saturnalia. Festival/ and german solstice celebration (sun is at its lowest point; return of the sun) Pagan holiday; illegal to celebrate: 19th c: christmas reinvented. Elizabethan christmas never returned; nostalgic return: old england. Isn"t the same as old christmas; not that religious; family and child center; Emphatically a commercial; big department store are formed- through this developed. Commercial modern era: thomas nast, santa claus (1880s) Kind of god of abundance; good food, lots of presents. Modern christmas is about abundance; buying gifts, food, etc: it"s a wonderful life (1946) movie.
