Raymond Williams

In this book, the author analyzes previous contributions to a Marxist theory of literature from Marx himself to Lukacs, Althusser, and Goldmann, and develops his own approach by outlining a theory of 'cultural materialism' which integrates Marxist theories of language with Marxist theories of literature.

Marxism and Literature

Raymond Williams is a towering presence in cultural studies, most importantly as the founder of the apporach that has come to be known as "cultural materialism." Yet Williams's method was always open-ended and fluid, and this volume collects together his most significant work from over a twenty-year peiod in which he wrestled with the concepts of materialism and culture and their interrelationship. Aside from his more directly theoretical texts, however, case-studies of theatrical naturalism, the Bloomsbury group, advertising, science fiction, and the Welsh novel are also included as illustrations of the method at work. Finally, Williams's identity as an active socialist, rather than simply an academic, is captured by two unambiguously political pieces on the past, present and future of Marxism.

Selected Essays

Culture and Materialism

A Vocabulary of Culture and Society

Keywords

A survey of English literature in terms of changing attitudes towards country and city, Williams's study reveals the shifting images and associations between these two traditional poles of life throughout the major developmental periods of English culture.

The Country and the City

Brand new collection of the essential essays from one of the founders of cultural studies, Raymond Williams Raymond Williams was a pioneering scholar of cultural and society, and one of the outstanding intellectuals of the twentieth century. In this, a collection of difficult to find essays, some of which are published for the first time, Williams emerges as not only one of the great writers of materialist criticism, but also a thoroughly engaged political writer. Published to coincide with the centenary of his birth and showing the full range of his work, from his early writings on the novel and society, to later work on ecosocialism and the politics of modernism, Politics and Culture shows Williams at both his most accessible and his most penetrating.An essential book for all those interested in the politics of culture in the twentieth century, and the development of Williams's work.

Class, Writing, Socialism

Culture and Politics

Raymond Williams was one of the world's leading cultural critics. With this book, Williams brilliantly documents the exciting birth of the popular press, and explores the growth of the reading public in English-speaking culture in Western Society. The Long Revolution of the title is the third revolution of culture after the democratic revolution and the industrial revolution. Almost uniquely, William's work bridged the divides between aesthetic and socio-economic inquiry, between Marxist thought and mainstream liberal thought, and between the modern and post-modern world. Continuing the theme he began so successfully in Culture and Society, Williams examines the gradual change, which took over our political, economic, and cultural life. He placed special emphasis on the 'creative mind' in relation to social and cultural thinking. After discussing the theory of culture he turns to a fascinating historical study of such institutions as education and the press, traces the development of a common language, and reveals the links between ideas, literary forms, and social history.

The Long Revolution

The romantic artist - Mill on bentham and coleridge - Thomas carlyle - The industrial novels - J.H. Newman and Matthew Arnold - Art and society - Interregnum - Twentieth-century opinions.

Culture and Society, 1780-1950

Television: Technology and Cultural Form was first published in 1974, long before the dawn of multi-channel TV, or the reality and celebrity shows that now pack the schedules. Yet Williams' analysis of television's history, its institutions, programmes and practices, and its future prospects, remains remarkably prescient. Williams stresses the importance of technology in shaping the cultural form of television, while always resisting the determinism of McLuhan's dictum that 'the medium is the message'. If the medium really is the message, Williams asks, what is left for us to do or say? Williams argues that, on the contrary, we as viewers have the power to disturb, disrupt and to distract the otherwise cold logic of history and technology - not just because television is part of the fabric of our daily lives, but because new technologies continue to offer opportunities, momentarily outside the sway of transnational corporations or the grasp of media moguls, for new forms of self and political expression.

Technology and Cultural Form

Television

Now revised to include new words and updated essays, Keywords focuses on the sociology of language, demonstrating how the key words we use to understand our society take on new meanings and how these changes reflect the political bent and values of society.

Williams' study of television, first published in 1974, was ahead of its time, introducing ideas the full implications of which we are only now beginning to appreciate. It is now reissued with updating by his son Ederyn.

Border Country (Library of Wales)

Raymond Williams, whose other works include Keywords, The Country and the City, Culture and Society, and Modern Tragedy, was one of the world’s foremost cultural critics. Almost uniquely, his work bridged the divides between aesthetic and socio-economic inquiry, between Marxist thought and mainstream liberal thought, and between the modern and post-modern world. When The Long Revolution first appeared in 1961, much of the acclaim it received was based on its prescriptions for Britain in the ’60s, which form a relatively brief final section of the whole. The body of the book has since come to be recognized as one of the foundation documents in the cultural analysis of English-speaking culture. The “long revolution” of the title is a cultural revolution, which Williams sees as having unfolded alongside the democratic revolution and the industrial revolution. With this book, Williams led the way in recognizing the importance of the growth of the popular press, the growth of standard English, and the growth the reading public in English-speaking culture and in Western culture as a whole. In addition, Williams’s discussion of how culture is to be defined and analyzed has been of considerable importance in the development of cultural studies as an independent discipline. Originally published by Chatto & Windus, The Long Revolution is now available only in this Broadview Encore Edition.

Michael Orrom

Preface to Film

Raymond Williams made a central contribution to the intellectual culture of the Left in the English-speaking world. He was also one of the key figures in the foundation of cultural studies in Britain, which turned critical skills honed on textual analysis to the examination of structures and forms of resistance apparent in everyday life. Politics and Letters is a volume of interviews with Williams, conducted by New Left Review, designed to bring into clear focus the major theoretical and political issues posed by his work. Introduced by writer Geoff Dyer, Politics and Letters ranges across Williams’s biographical development, the evolution of his cultural theory and literary criticism, his work on dramatic forms and his fiction, and an exploration of British and international politics.

Interviews with New Left Review

Politics and Letters

Roger Sharrock

The Pelican Book of English Prose: From 1780 to the present day, edited by R. Williams

The second title in the landmark series of classics, the Library of Wales. When railway signalman Harry Price suddenly suffers a stroke his son Matthew, a lecturer in London, makes a return to the border village of Glynmawr. As Matthew and Harry struggle with their memories of social and personal change, a beautiful and moving portrait of the love between a father and son emerges.

Border Country

The original publication of the May Day Manifesto in 1967 collected together the most influential radical voices of the era. Among the seventy signatories were Raymond Williams, E. P. Thompson, Stuart Hall, Iris Murdoch, Terry Eagleton, Ralph Miliband and R. D. Laing. The manifesto set out a new agenda for socialist Britain, in the aftermath of the failure of postwar labours. Urgently relevant to the current arguments about the crisis of austerity, the burden of empire and the failures to control rampant capitalism, it offers a complete road map to a brighter future. Covering the purpose of the state and how finance and empire are twinned, the importance of a planned economy for all, the role of Britain in the world, the manifesto hoped to inspire change and a fairer society. It is a bold reminder that there are alternatives to the current situation, and that alternative policies can make a difference.

Raymond Williams

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