Cultural history (n.) or cultural (adj):
Describing a field of study that utilizes anthropology and history as gateways
to understanding a society, cultural history examines patterns of popular
culture and common traditions unique to a society in a certain time period.
Additionally, the term itself implicates other historical concepts such as
power, class, culture, identity, and nationalism that are inseparable from the
history of a particular culture. Often cultural histories also examine the
mores and customs of a culture and how they are subsequently reflected by the
mass media of the time period. While 18th century literature does
not yield absolute truth on the cultural events of the time, the works produced
are, next to primary sources, our best look into the events themselves as well
as societal reactions. Various social and political phenomena appear as subtle
intricacies of the larger themes and plots of the literature produced. As the
literary subject matter evolved from the criminal biography to the increasingly
modern Mansfield Park, echoes Britain’s shifting cultural values
and interests. As Edward W. Said illuminates, one of the purposes of the
British novel, especially the later forms, is to offer “positive ideas of home,
of a nation and its language, of proper order, good behavior, moral values”
(81). Beginning with Daniel Defoe’s Roxana the presence of economic
jargon reflects Britain’s burgeoning commercial
interests around the world. Britain’s position as an
international economic power evolves and resurfaces in later works such as
Evelina under the guise of nationalistic fervor held by the British Captain
against Francophile Mrs. Duval. Painting a more negative picture of
Britain’s economic growth, Mansfield Park, though, Jane Austen demonstrates
the waning moral effects of such exploitation.
In a large sense, study of the novel directly informs cultural history. However
unknowingly, by tracing the origins and rise of the British novel as a literary
genre, we follow the various social and political movements and phenomena unique
to that nation’s history.
