Доклад на тему "What do I know about the culture of the USA"

School # 30

"What do I know about the culture of the USA"

Karaganda 2018

The development of the culture of the United States of America—music, cinema ,dance, architecture, literature, poetry, cuisine and the visual arts—has been marked by a tension between two strong sources of inspiration: European sophistication and domestic originality. Frequently, the best American artists have managed to harness both sources such as Elvis Presley, Jimi Hendrix, etc.

American culture has a large influence on the rest of the world, especially the Western world. American music is heard all over the world, such as through MTV, Channel V, VH1 and by singers such as Michael Jackson, Tina Terner, Mariah Carey, Backstreet Boys, Whitney Houston and American movies and television shows can be seen almost anywhere such as Titanic, The Matrix, Mission Impossible etc. and American sports figures are widely known such as Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Venus Williams, Myke Tayson, etc. This is in very stark contrast to the early days of the American republic, when the country was generally seen as an agricultural backwater with little to offer the culturally advanced world centers of Europe and Asia. Nearing the end of its third century, nearly every major American city offers classical and popular music; historical, scientific and art research centers and museums; dance performances, musicals and plays; outdoor art projects and internationally significant architecture. This development is a result of both contributions by private philanthropists and government funding.

American culture also exhibits a tendency to hybridize pop culture and so-called high culture, and generally questions normative standards for artistic output. This is likely an effect of the country's egalitarian  tradition, and the nation's history of constitutionally protected freedom of speech and expression, as enshrined in the First Amendment.

Literature of the United States

In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, American art and literature took most of its cues from Europe. Writers such as Nathaniel Hawthorne,Edgar Allan Poe , and Henry David Thoreau established a distinctive American literary voice by the middle of the nineteenth century. Mark Twain and poet Walt Whitman were major figures in the century's second half; Emily Dickinson, virtually unknown during her lifetime, would be recognized as America's other essential poet. Eleven U.S. citizens have won the Nobel Prize in Literature, most recently  Toni Morrison in 1993. Ernest Hemingway, the 1954 Nobel laureate, is often named as one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century. A work seen as capturing fundamental aspects of the national experience and character—such as Herman Melville's Moby-Dick (1851), Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), and F.Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby (1925)—may be dubbed the  "Great American Novel." Popular literary genres such as the Western and hardboiled crime fiction developed in the United States.   

American literature is literature written or produced in the United States and its preceding colonies (for specific discussions of poetry and theater, see Poetry of the United States and  Theater in the United States). Before the founding of the United States, the British colonies on the eastern coast of the present-day United States were heavily influenced by English literature. The American literary tradition thus began as part of the broader tradition of English literature.

The poetry of the United States naturally arose first during its beginnings as the Constitutionally-unified thirteen colonies (although prior to this, a strong oral tradition often likened to poetry existed among Native American societies). Unsurprisingly, most of the early colonists' work relied on contemporary British models of poetic form, diction, and theme. However, in the 19th century, a distinctive American idiom  began to emerge. By the later part of that century, when Walt Whitman was winning an enthusiastic audience abroad, poets from the United States had begun to take their place at the forefront of the English-language avant-garde.

This position was sustained into the 20th century to the extent that Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot were perhaps the most influential English-language poets in the period during World War I.y the 1960s young poets of the British Poetry Revival looked American acontemporaries and predecessors models for the kind of poetry they wanted to write. Toward the end of the millennium, consideration of American poetry had diversified, as scholars placed an increased emphasis on poetry by women, Affrican Americans, Hispanics, Chicanos and other subcultural groupings. Poetry, and creative writing in general, also tended to become more professionalized with the growth of creative writing programs in the English studies departments of campuses across the country.

American comic book

Since the invention of the comic book  format in the 1930s, the United States has been the leading producer with only the British comic books (during the inter-war period and up until the 1970s) and the Japanese manga as close competitors in terms of quantity.

     Comic book sales began to decline after World War II , when the medium was competing with the spread of television and mass market paperback books. In the 1960s, comic books' audience expanded to include college students who favored the naturalistic, "superheroes in the real world" trend initiated by Stan Lee at Marvel. The 1960s also saw the advent of the underground comics. Later, the recognition of the comic medium among academics, literary critics and art museums helped solidify comics as a serious artform with established traditions, stylistic conventions, and artistic evolution.

The music of the United States reflects the country's multi-ethnic population through a diverse array of styles. Rock and roll, country, rhythm and blues, jazz, and hip hop are among the country's most internationally-renowned genres. Since the beginning of the 20th century, some forms of American popular music have gained a near global audience.

The earliest inhabitants of the United States were Native Americans who played the first music in the area. Beginning in the 17th century, immigrants from the British Isles, Spain, and France began arriving in large numbers, bringing with them new styles and instruments. African slaves brought musical traditions, and each subsequent wave of immigrants contributed to a melting pot.

Much of modern popular music can trace its roots to the emergence in the late 19th century of African American blues and the growth of gospel music in the 1920s. The African American basis for popular music used elements derived from European and indigenous musics. The United States has also seen documented folk music and recorded popular music produced in the ethnic styles of the Ukrainian, Irish, Scottish, Polish, Hispanic and Jewish communities among others.

Many American cities and towns have vibrant music scenes which, in turn, support a number of regional musical styles. Aside from cities such as Detroit, New York Chicago, Nashville and Los Angeles, many smaller cities have produced distinctive styles of music. The Cajun and Creole traditions in Lousiana music, the folk and popular styles of Hawaiian music, and the blue grass and old time music of the Southeastern states are a few examples of diversity in American music.

Our Kazakh singers cannot reach the same level in music and popularity as in America

Cinema of the United States American cinema has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, Classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period (after 1980).

Television of the United States   

Television is one of the major major mass media of the United States. In an expansive country of more than 300 million people, television programs are some of the few things that nearly all Americans can share. Ninety-nine percent of American households have at least one television and the majority of households have more than one.

Dance in the United States

There is great variety in dance in the United States, it is the home of the Lindy Hop nd its derivative Rock and Roll, and modern square dance (associated with the United States of America due to its historic development in that country--nineteen U.S. states have designated it as their offical state dance) and one of the major centers for modern dance. There is a variety of social dance and concert or performance dance forms with also a range of traditions of Native American dances.

Holidays in the United States

 16 January, of religious freedom in the United States.

 19 January, the birthday of Robert E. Lee

 1 February, freedom day in the United States

 12 February, Abraham Lincoln's birthday

 22 February, George Washington's birthday,

17 March, St. Patrick's Day

14 June, the day the American flag

4 July, independence day

25 December, Christmas

31 October, Halloween-all saints day eve (Samhain) or Nevada state day

18 Octoder, Day Alaska

Literature

1. http://usmodernculture.wikia.com/wiki/Culture_of_the_United_States

2. http://en.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enwiki/367081