Work · Socialism, Anarchism, Marxism & Critical Theory
Marxism and Literature
Reworks Marxist cultural theory: base and superstructure become aspects of one material social process, Gramsci’s hegemony a lived system of meanings and values, challenged by residual and emergent forms and registered in “structures of feeling”; Williams calls the position “cultural materialism”.
Introduction
“Marxism and Literature” appeared in 1977 in the Oxford University Press series “Marxist Introductions” and is Williams’s most systematic statement of theory. Its first part examines four basic concepts: culture, language, literature and ideology. The second reworks Marxist cultural theory: base and superstructure are treated not as separate levels but as aspects of one material social process, and Gramsci’s hegemony becomes a lived system of meanings and values that must constantly be renewed and is challenged by residual and emergent forms; here Williams also sets out the “structure of feeling”. The third part turns to literary theory – signs, conventions, genres, forms and authorship. Williams called the position of the book “cultural materialism”.
Connections
Builds on
- Prison Notebooks1935 · Antonio Gramsci
More works by Raymond Williams
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