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Problems in Materialism and Culture: Selected Essays
Raymond Williams was the founder of an approach that was to become known as “cultural materialism.” Yet, Williams‘s method was always open-ended and fluid, and this volume collects toegther his most significant work from over a 25-year period 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 illlustrations 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.
- GenresPhilosophyNonfiction
Paperback
First published January 1, 1980
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About the author
Raymond Williams
208 books268 followersRaymond Henry Williams was a Welsh academic, novelist, and critic. He taught for many years and the Professor of Drama at the University of Cambridge. He was an influential figure within the New Left and in wider culture. His writings on politics, culture, the mass media and literature are a significant contribution to the Marxist critique of culture and the arts. His work laid the foundations for the field of cultural studies and the cultural materialist approach. Among his many books are Culture and Society, Culture and Materialism, Politics and Letters, Problems in Materialism and Culture, and several novels.
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July 16, 2017There appear to be 13 instances of I on p20; 5 on p21, 6 on p22, 10 on p24, 6 on p25, 11 on p26, 7 on p38, 8 on p67, 5 on p221, 9 on p242, 6 on p243 and 11 on p244.
Sayeth Williams on p24, "We should study, in the greatest literature, the organizing categories, the essential structures, which give such works their unity, their specific aesthetic character, their strictly literary quality; and which at the same time reveal to us the maximum possible consciousness of the social group - in real terms, the social class - which finally created them, in and through their individual authors."
And breathe.
The Seven Basic Plots written by Christopher Booker appears to be a very good book on this topic, and this reviewer would welcome additional references which are as good or indeed better (e.g. Utopia and Science Fiction on pp196-212). Chapter 12 is recommended for readers interested specifically in the development of Welsh novels from the mid-19th to early 20th Centuries.
On p26, arguments around "I had become convinced in my own work that the most penetrating analysis would always be of forms, specifically literary forms, where changes of viewpoint, changes of known and knowable relationships, changes of possible and actual resolutions, could be directly demonstrated, as forms of literary organization, and then, just because they involved more than individual solutions, could be reasonably related to real social history, itself considered analytically in terms of basic relationships and failures and limits of relationship." need to be presented at,in an appropriate time, setting. And also those on p34 around "We have to revalue 'superstructure' towards a related range of cultural practices (sic), and away from a reflected, reproduced or specifically dependent content."
On p31, considering "It would be...preferable if we could begin from...the proposition that social being determines consciousness.", what would the assumptions and corollories be of I-am-therefore-the-capacity-to-think-is-available? What is considered to be valuable for each (taking into account the arguments on pp86-102)?
On p39, the decent corollaries of "The educational institutions are usually the main agencies of the transmission of an effective dominant culture, and this is now a major economic as well as a cultural activity." should be elaborated appropriately to take account of the development of cyberspace since 1980. The issues and arguments around the content of pp40-1 need to take place at,in an appropriate time, setting.
A slightly wistful exposition of the meaning of life is presented on pp69-73.
The chapter between pages 102 and 122 is concerned with Problems of Materialism and before their scope is related to the book title, a substantially complete definition of materialism in the social sciences appears to be required which can function past ooh-bad-stuff-over-there-look-dude (especially concerning the physical, biological and mind hierarchy outlined on p106) . Which general concepts may be worthy of consideration to be included in a satisfactory definition, e.g. chaos, emergence, self-organisation, anchoring, texture, structure, ordering, form, substance, vulgarity, tastefulness, (to inc preferences for symbolism over wordey-thingeys), norms, utility, duty, welfare, justice etc? As a decent definition develops, to what extent is the anxiety implied in the title of the book related to concerns with any structure implied in cultural content; which values precede and follow on from such concerns? On p112, what does "Neither materialist triumphalism nor materialist pessimism is of any material help in the necessary processes of an extended secular knowledge and of definitions and redefinitions of our social processes in its light." assume and why does this argument matter? The issues and anxieties presenting on p233 and the aphids in Chapter 13 (+14) should be addressed at,in an appropriate time,setting (suitable for intensive think-tankery).
On p113, which corollaries should seem to flow from the "The deepest cultural significance of a relatively unchanging biological human condition is probably to be found in some of the basic material processes of the making of art: in the significance of rhythms in music and dance and language, or of shapes and colours in sculpture and painting." conclusion?
Chapter nine - The Bloomsbury Fraction - 5*
Sayeth Williams on p24, "We should study, in the greatest literature, the organizing categories, the essential structures, which give such works their unity, their specific aesthetic character, their strictly literary quality; and which at the same time reveal to us the maximum possible consciousness of the social group - in real terms, the social class - which finally created them, in and through their individual authors."
And breathe.
The Seven Basic Plots written by Christopher Booker appears to be a very good book on this topic, and this reviewer would welcome additional references which are as good or indeed better (e.g. Utopia and Science Fiction on pp196-212). Chapter 12 is recommended for readers interested specifically in the development of Welsh novels from the mid-19th to early 20th Centuries.
On p26, arguments around "I had become convinced in my own work that the most penetrating analysis would always be of forms, specifically literary forms, where changes of viewpoint, changes of known and knowable relationships, changes of possible and actual resolutions, could be directly demonstrated, as forms of literary organization, and then, just because they involved more than individual solutions, could be reasonably related to real social history, itself considered analytically in terms of basic relationships and failures and limits of relationship." need to be presented at,in an appropriate time, setting. And also those on p34 around "We have to revalue 'superstructure' towards a related range of cultural practices (sic), and away from a reflected, reproduced or specifically dependent content."
On p31, considering "It would be...preferable if we could begin from...the proposition that social being determines consciousness.", what would the assumptions and corollories be of I-am-therefore-the-capacity-to-think-is-available? What is considered to be valuable for each (taking into account the arguments on pp86-102)?
On p39, the decent corollaries of "The educational institutions are usually the main agencies of the transmission of an effective dominant culture, and this is now a major economic as well as a cultural activity." should be elaborated appropriately to take account of the development of cyberspace since 1980. The issues and arguments around the content of pp40-1 need to take place at,in an appropriate time, setting.
A slightly wistful exposition of the meaning of life is presented on pp69-73.
The chapter between pages 102 and 122 is concerned with Problems of Materialism and before their scope is related to the book title, a substantially complete definition of materialism in the social sciences appears to be required which can function past ooh-bad-stuff-over-there-look-dude (especially concerning the physical, biological and mind hierarchy outlined on p106) . Which general concepts may be worthy of consideration to be included in a satisfactory definition, e.g. chaos, emergence, self-organisation, anchoring, texture, structure, ordering, form, substance, vulgarity, tastefulness, (to inc preferences for symbolism over wordey-thingeys), norms, utility, duty, welfare, justice etc? As a decent definition develops, to what extent is the anxiety implied in the title of the book related to concerns with any structure implied in cultural content; which values precede and follow on from such concerns? On p112, what does "Neither materialist triumphalism nor materialist pessimism is of any material help in the necessary processes of an extended secular knowledge and of definitions and redefinitions of our social processes in its light." assume and why does this argument matter? The issues and anxieties presenting on p233 and the aphids in Chapter 13 (+14) should be addressed at,in an appropriate time,setting (suitable for intensive think-tankery).
On p113, which corollaries should seem to flow from the "The deepest cultural significance of a relatively unchanging biological human condition is probably to be found in some of the basic material processes of the making of art: in the significance of rhythms in music and dance and language, or of shapes and colours in sculpture and painting." conclusion?
Chapter nine - The Bloomsbury Fraction - 5*
April 6, 2018
Advertising: The Magic System, pp.170-195
p.184 – Advertising has passed the frontier of the selling of goods and services and has become involved with the teaching of social and personal values; it is also rapidly entering the world of politics. Advertising is also, in a sense, the official art of modern capitalist society.
p.185 – It is impossible to look at modern advertising without realizing that the material object being sold is never enough: this indeed is the crucial cultural quality of its modern forms.
p.189 – You do not only buy an object: you buy social respect, discrimination, health, beauty, success, power to control your environment. The magic obscures the real sources of general satisfaction because their discovery would involve radical change in the whole common way of life.
The conversation of numerous objects into sources of sexual or pre-sexual satisfaction is evidently not only a process in the minds of advertisers, but also a deep and general confusion in which much energy is locked.
Beyond Actually Existing Socialism, pp.252-273
p.257 – A cultural revolution, by contrast with other social programmes, is directed towards the general appropriation of all the real forces of production, including now especially the intellectual forces of knowledge and conscious decision, as the necessary means of revolutionizing the social relations (determination of the use of resources; distribution and organization of work; distribution of products and services) which follow from variable forms of control of and access to all the productive forces.
p.184 – Advertising has passed the frontier of the selling of goods and services and has become involved with the teaching of social and personal values; it is also rapidly entering the world of politics. Advertising is also, in a sense, the official art of modern capitalist society.
p.185 – It is impossible to look at modern advertising without realizing that the material object being sold is never enough: this indeed is the crucial cultural quality of its modern forms.
p.189 – You do not only buy an object: you buy social respect, discrimination, health, beauty, success, power to control your environment. The magic obscures the real sources of general satisfaction because their discovery would involve radical change in the whole common way of life.
The conversation of numerous objects into sources of sexual or pre-sexual satisfaction is evidently not only a process in the minds of advertisers, but also a deep and general confusion in which much energy is locked.
Beyond Actually Existing Socialism, pp.252-273
p.257 – A cultural revolution, by contrast with other social programmes, is directed towards the general appropriation of all the real forces of production, including now especially the intellectual forces of knowledge and conscious decision, as the necessary means of revolutionizing the social relations (determination of the use of resources; distribution and organization of work; distribution of products and services) which follow from variable forms of control of and access to all the productive forces.
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