Reader’s Journal: “Beowulf” Geoffrey Chaucer , “the Canterbury Tales” (“the General Prologue”), “English Literature” by Anthony Burgess: Chap. 9 “Romeo and Juliet”
We all live in the world of popular culture. No one can isolate himself from different trappings of this worldwide phenomenon that is commonly regarded as culture for mass consumption connected with urbanisation and industrial revolution. It was defined and named shortly “pop culture” in the middle of the 20th century. Since we are pop culture receivers, we watch TV broadcasts and commercial movies with famous pop-stars, listen to the pop music on the radio, we are attacked by often offensive advertisements considered by some people as the type of art. Furthermore, we surf the Internet to read gossip about famous people or get other information as fast as possible – some of us spend on this long hours everyday and become even addicted to mass media that are most important conveyor of pop culture. One of components of pop culture we meet in media are celebrities. As stated Daniel Boorstin in 1961 celebrities are people who are “famous for being famous”. There is no particular identifiable reason why someone attains celebrity status – he or she does not have any particular talent or ability, does not have to be an authority, sometimes just attending popular places, parties or taking part in scandal is enough to become a celebrity. It is the right moment to explain why I started my “Reader's journal” with introduction about pop culture. Firstly, when I read Anglo-Saxon, Medieval and Renaissance pieces of literature, I started to wonder if it is true statement that popular culture emerged just in the 20th century? Or maybe it started already several centuries ago? Is it possible that some contemporary people were regarded similarly to nowadays celebrities? Through the prism of these issues I considered “Beowulf”, “The Canterbury Tales” by Geoffrey Chaucer, chapter about William Shakespeare's life and literature and “Romeo and Juliet”. So let's travel in my “Reader's journal” to Anglo-Saxon, Medieval and Renaissance times and look for any signs of pop culture of