Literature

William Shakespeare
• Shakespeare's work has made a lasting impression on later theatre and literature. In
particular, he expanded the dramatic potential of characterization, plot, language, and
genre. Until Romeo and Juliet, for example, romance had not been viewed as a worthy
topic for tragedy.
• Shakespeare's influence extends far beyond his native England and the English
language. His reception in Germany was particularly significant; as early as the 18th
century Shakespeare was widely translated and popularized in Germany, and
gradually became a "classic of the German Weimar era“
• According to Guinness World Records, Shakespeare remains the world's best-selling
playwright, with sales of his plays and poetry believed to have achieved in excess of
four billion copies in the almost 400 years since his death.
William Shakespeare - Wikipedia. En.wikipedia.org. Retrieved 11 February 2022, from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare.
Charles Dickens
• He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many
as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era.
• A Christmas Carol is most probably his best-known story, with frequent new adaptations.
• The current state of the observance of Christmas is largely the result of a mid-Victorian
revival of the holiday spearheaded by A Christmas Carol. Dickens catalyzed the emerging
Christmas as a family-centred festival of generosity
• "Merry Christmas", a prominent phrase from the tale, was popularized following the
appearance of the story. The term Scrooge became a synonym for miser, and his
exclamation "Bah! Humbug!'", a dismissal of the festive spirit, likewise gained currency
as an idiom.
Charles Dickens - Wikipedia. En.wikipedia.org. Retrieved 11 February 2022, from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Dickens.
Music
The Beatles
• With a line-up comprising John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and
Ringo Starr, they sparked the "Beatlemania" phenomenon in 1963, gained
international superstardom in 1964, and remained active until their break-up in
1970.
• According to historian Michael James Roberts, even though their early songs
avoided such issues, the band represented "cultural change and the oppositional
stance of the youth culture against the establishment".
• They were widely viewed as leaders of the youth culture and such a sentiment
was echoed by the mainstream press. Their 1966 songs "Paperback Writer",
"Rain", "Taxman" and "Eleanor Rigby" provided social commentary, with the
lyrics of "Rain" making explicit the delineation between the socially aware and
those who were not.
The Beatles
• According to documentary filmmaker Leslie Woodhead, a former Cold War spy, the
Beatles' music helped persuade young Russians to defy communist ideology and begin
the process that led to the fall of communism throughout Eastern Europe. He said the
extent of the band's influence became apparent in the 1990s when local rock musicians
told him that "not only were the Beatles colossal from the Berlin Wall to Vladivostok but
that they'd played a really significant part in helping to wash away totalitarianism ...
They liberated a certain spiritual energy so that two generations of Soviet kids simply
gave up on building socialism and started to realize that the Cold War enemy, instead of
being a threat, made wonderful music.“
• Many young Russians learnt to speak English through the Beatles' lyrics, and the band's
songs helped spread the English language throughout Europe and the rest of the world.
Cultural impact of the Beatles - Wikipedia. En.wikipedia.org. Retrieved 11 February 2022,
from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_impact_of_the_Beatles.