Today, are we all Young Werthers?
Before the rise of modern information technology, the shaping of a person would have likely happened through the local community – parents, elders, priest, officials – and I wonder if the culture was relatively static. Of course, there would have been fashions in culture but I get the impression these gradually spread and were longer-lasting. Picture it this way: La Roman de la Rose, most likely based on earlier oral stories is written by Guillaume de Lorris in the early 1200s. It spreads through France and abroad over the next 100 years. It’s translated into other languages, notably by Chaucer…
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