Copenhagen 12.05.2000
Contents.
- Introduction……………………………………………………………………………2
- Everyday Culture…………………………………………………………………….2
- National Culture and Denmark’s Cultural Policy………………………….4
- Support to the Culture…………………………………………………………….5
- Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………..6
- Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………..7
Introduction.
What creates the personality? Which are the factors that help
in the process of forming the personality? The aim of my paper is to find the
answers for these and many other questions. If they would be asked directly to
me, my answer would be something like this: “ It is very hard to answer, but it
depends on the education that I have received (along with other personal
matters like family, friends, interests, etc. But undoubtedly, it is of course
the cultural background, sociological characteristics of my nation and so on.”
But you would ask what does it have
to do with the subject this paper is about. Of course you are right, I am going
to try to find out the answers to the previous questions in connection with
Danish society. What is the cultural and educational background of Danish
people? What are the stereotypes of the nation? These are the questions that I
will concentrate my attention on.
Everyday culture.
“Typical” is a word that crops up in
all European languages. Without thinking, people use expressions like “that’s
just typical”, “typical of a man” or “typical of a woman”. You can hear these
expressions in the street in the club. We use this word to describe particular,
frequently recurring ways of behaving, which we may find either endearing or
irritating, but which appear to us to be characteristic of a situation, person
or gender. We use the word to describe the cultural practices and, at the same
time, to classify or identify them according to type. This is a way of carrying
out everyday cultural analysis, in which we use our own experiences and
perceptions as the standard by which we then judge the characteristics and
peculiarities of others. This is not a completely arbitrary or subjective
process since, in most cases, it involves an unconscious reference to certain
rules of everyday life which we take for granted and to which we expect our own
behavior and that of others to conform. So “typical: used in that sense means
that we have recognized, or believe we have recognized, a specific social,
personal or gender-related variant within framework of general rules.
These two elements – our attitude
towards everyday life itself and the manner in which we observe and classify it
– represent basic guidelines, as it were, by which we define “culture”. This is
not culture in the traditional sense, transmitted through the work of artists,
but rather in the broad, anthropological sense: the social organization of
everyday life with its various systems of significant rules and values and the
way in which the individual comes to terms with them.
The word “typical” seems to be on our lips particularly often
when we cast a classifying eye at the behavior of people of other countries and
nationalities.
We say “Typically American!” or
something of the sort when we see somebody who looks foreign to us. The
deciding factor in calling somebody this way is the cultural differences
between them and us.
If we are analyzing the looks of the
people we apply the same factors, i.e. the discrimination between them and us.
The average Danish person is 1m70 or slightly more with
blonde hair and crazy for … but is that true, of course that is a common
opinion about Scandinavian people. But is that really so? Do all the people in
Denmark think only about sex and are they all blonde? Of course not, but this
is widespread stereotype about Scandinavian people.
In reality due to the fact that many
people of different races and nationalities have come to Denmark and have
brought some of their own culture and obviously their appearance emerging and
integrating into the modern society, this statement is no longer true. You can
find a lot of people who are taller or shorter than the average height and also
many people (sometimes due to the hair color changes they have made) are not
blonde. We can find many people that do not have blue eyes either.
The reasons for such widespread mistaken stereotype can be
different. Partially it could be because of the Danish people that travel
around. It is much more easy to remember somebody handsome with blue eyes,
blonde hair and most notably if he/she is famous for his/her sexual abilities.
National
Culture and Denmark’s Cultural Policy.
Culture is most commonly
connected with nationality. “National culture” and “nation in culture” are two
identifiable concepts from the era of nationalism since the late eighteenth
century. This epoch has seen repeated calls for a coherent national culture to
be cultivated and protected in order to safeguard the spiritual existence of
the nation.
But perceiving culture in this way,
i.e. as unique to the nations, within the framework of political and spatial
separation, meant that the supposedly different nature of a “foreign society”
was used as a cause, or pretext, for isolationist policies. Since the end of
the 18th century, that link, which is supposed to bind a culture to
a nation, has been known as the “people”. This “people” is welded together by a
common language, religion and history, and needs to separate itself from
everything foreign so as to preserve its own character. But it has been
suspected for some time that in most European countries this much-vaunted
historical unity of national community was nothing more than a deliberately
fostered myth. There are few countries where language, religion and history
combine to present us with a truly homogeneous and uniform view of the past.
Denmark puts great emphasis on its
cultural development. The public library system and the folk high school
movement have played significant roles in people’s efforts to improve their
daily lives. In the 18th century many peasant children attended
schools and learned the ancient myths about the Old Nordic gods, Odin, Thor and
Freja.
The theater, the visual arts, music,
films and literature open up an important avenue to new experiences and new
ideas. Many people engage themselves in amateur activities and voluntary
education in order to gain new social experiences and inject themselves with
strength to overcome daily problems a lot easier. Many children exposed to
theatre performances, films and books geared to their age groups, have likewise
enjoyed enriching experiences, gained knowledge and been stimulated to engross
themselves in the events of the world around them.
This proves that theatre-going
culture in Denmark is developed on high scale as well as opera. Books play huge
role in child’s and also adult’s self-development or self-education. Of course
it is not so hard to raise interest in child towards the literature, because
some of Danish authors are very well known in the world. Authors like H.C.
Andersen have inspired many kids around the world and his tales have helped
many parents to teach the right – wrong scale for the children. We have all
been dreaming of meeting the soldiers from Andersen’s tales, we try to imagine
how it was at the time Hans Christian lived, the magical time as we recognize
it then. Was it so magical or Andersen’s ability to describe the things
enchantingly.
The tales about great Viking ships
breaking the waves of the sea, the great traders and fighters inspire children
for improvement of personal courage. That is why it is significant to teach
culture and history in the early age when child’s set of values is formed.
Also the educational system has to be
mentioned. The ruling principle in educational system as everywhere else
(Denmark always stresses its democratic approach towards everything at least
what concerns personal freedom). The choice of courses is left to the student
himself. Children themselves also make the early choice in schools.
Support to the Culture.
Although libraries (with the Black Diamond as a crown to them
all in both as an architectural wonder and also as source full library) receive
financial support from the state it is possible to work independently within
the structure. Though politicians express their opinion about e.g. library’s
purchase of children’s` books containing sexual or violent contents, or against
production of certain kind of films (which by the way are legal in Denmark),
etc. generally in Denmark is the freedom of expression.
Throughout the course of the history many monarchs and
benefactors have supported culture in many different ways. Also the government
has not been standing aside supporting talented artists and gifted scientists
on their rise when it is so important to have financial and mental support. The
according legislature has been applied. In 1961 the Ministry of Culture started
to function. The ministry that centralized and supervised cultural life in
Denmark. After 1992 the Danish cultural policy has become more EU directed in
order to gain Danes involved in main cultural events in the whole Europe.
Conclusions.
The culture of Denmark is the perfect mirror for their
identity. The free choice in everything, the social – democratic government,
this is what we understand with the “ typical Danish”.
Thus, it is important for Denmark to maintain this kind of
policy towards everything, not only culture and related subjects. In this way
combined with cultural baggage during the course of the history, Denmark
creates the image (the Danish welfare policy) of strong, developed, stable
country with healthy, open – minded and educated, cultured people.
Bibliography.
1.
Citizenship,
Nationality and Migration in Europe/ D. Cesarini and M. Fullbrook/ Routledge/
1997
2.
Aspects
of European Cultural Diversity/M. Shelley and M. Winck/ Routledge/ 1995
3.
Discover
Denmark/ The Danish Cultural Institute/Systime Publishers Ltd./1995
5.
http://www.pantheon.org/mythica/links.html
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