What is the role of the American dream in the development of genre’s in the English Language?
What is the role of the American dream in the development of genre’s in the English Language?
Creation of Genre’s in the English language took its root in the fertile American zeitgeist in the late 19th and the early 20th century. Darwin’s doctorine of natural selection was especially influential in in instigating a functionalist school of thought, while the intellectual climate and economic forces operating in the US suited it to the being the breeding ground for the development of language, where most of the developments have taken place. (Schultz & Schultz, 2011).
Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, despite its origin in Europe, was more readily accepted by the American society than any other, which was receptive to the notion of fitness i.e. the ability to survive and reproduce, and that individuals meeting this criterion would have an adaptive ability that would confer them an advantage over their counterparts (Hergenhahn & Henley, 2013).
The zeitgeist in the 19th century was driven by these themes of evolution, science and democracy: evolution stressed the continuity between animals and humans; while scientific inquiry or positivism, was concerned with application of the scientific method to all domains, including the natural science of the human mind. Democracy brought these sentiments together to solve the emerging problems of the societies developing after the industrial revolution (Spielberger, 2011). Such was the utilitarian influence of America, put forward by the British empiricist James Mill (Hergenhahn & Henley, 2013)—the American Dream, the ethos which was the precedent for technological, economic and social reform, was in fact a translation of these intervening forces, as seen in James Adams’s famous quote:
The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement…a dream of social order in which each man and each woman
Creation of Genre’s in the English language took its root in the fertile American zeitgeist in the late 19th and the early 20th century. Darwin’s doctorine of natural selection was especially influential in in instigating a functionalist school of thought, while the intellectual climate and economic forces operating in the US suited it to the being the breeding ground for the development of language, where most of the developments have taken place. (Schultz & Schultz, 2011).
Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, despite its origin in Europe, was more readily accepted by the American society than any other, which was receptive to the notion of fitness i.e. the ability to survive and reproduce, and that individuals meeting this criterion would have an adaptive ability that would confer them an advantage over their counterparts (Hergenhahn & Henley, 2013).
The zeitgeist in the 19th century was driven by these themes of evolution, science and democracy: evolution stressed the continuity between animals and humans; while scientific inquiry or positivism, was concerned with application of the scientific method to all domains, including the natural science of the human mind. Democracy brought these sentiments together to solve the emerging problems of the societies developing after the industrial revolution (Spielberger, 2011). Such was the utilitarian influence of America, put forward by the British empiricist James Mill (Hergenhahn & Henley, 2013)—the American Dream, the ethos which was the precedent for technological, economic and social reform, was in fact a translation of these intervening forces, as seen in James Adams’s famous quote:
The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement…a dream of social order in which each man and each woman
References: Adams, J. T. (1931). The Epic of America. Hergenhahn, B. R., & Henley, T. (2013). An Introduction to the History of Psychology (7th ed.). Stamford: Cengage Learning. Michaels.E, what is the American Dream? http://america.day-dreamer.de/dream.htm Hergenhahn, B. R., & Henley, T. (2013). An Introduction to the History of Psychology (7th ed.). Stamford: Cengage Learning.