Tradition, inovation and historicity in Raymond Williams Cultural Materialism

• Grant number: 18/06742-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Start date: September 17, 2018
• End date: March 14, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - Theory and Philosophy of History
• Principal Investigator: Silvana Barbosa Rubino
• Grantee: Carla Rocha Baute
• Supervisor: Daniel Gwydion Williams
• Host Institution: Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Swansea University, Wales
• Associated to the scholarship: 17/08999-8 - Tradition, inovation and historicity in Raymond Williams cultural materialism, BP.MS

Abstract

This research aims to analyze the contribution of the welsh thinker Raymond Williams (1921-1988) within cultural theory in the second half of the twentieth century. From a perspective that emphasized the complex and intrinsic relationship between culture and society, emerged Cultural Materialism. By defining culture as a social and material process, Williams was fundamental to the foundation of Cultural Studies and had a significant role in the British New Left. Articulated between two instances - the study of the text itself and the insertion of Williams in the intellectual field of the epoch -, my investigation has as its central goals to analyze the development of his theoretical formulations throughout his career in important selected works. Going beyond the importance of this subject within intellectual history, the connections between cultural analysis and historical development were fundamental aspects in Williams' thinking and a in depth study is yet to be done in the field of history. Because nonetheless he was a literary critic and not a historian by profession, an investigation of the way historical development appears in his work can contribute to the understanding of the different interpretations that dealt with the passage of time and its relations to cultural manifestations, and to its limit, to social knowledge. The visiting scholar internship at Swansea University will have a groundbreaking impact in this research, since it will provide the much-needed access to the Raymond Williams Papers (an archive that contains the author's full bibliography, as well as his personal correspondences and notes), also enabling a fertile intellectual dialogue with the members of CREW (Centre for Research into the English Literature and Language of Wales).