Tradition, innovation and historicity in Raymond Williams' Cultural Materialism

Author(s)

Carla Rocha Baute

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas
• Defense date: 2020-02-28

Examining board members

Silvana Rubino; Maria Elisa Burgos Pereira da Silva Cevasco; Claudio Henrique de Moraes Batalha

• Advisor: Silvana Rubino

Abstract

This research analyzes the contribution that the welsh thinker Raymond Williams (1921-1988) made to social thought in the second half of the twentieth century. His theory, cultural materialism, argued for non-abstract approaches regarding the complex relationships between culture and society, through an understanding of culture as a social and material process. Articulated between two instances ¿ a study of both the texts and Williams¿ insertion in the period¿s intellectual field-, this dissertation examines the developments of the author¿s theoretical formulations throughout his career in selected works e aims to trace dialectical relationships with a wider context of transformations and reconfigurations of British radical thinking. Williams¿ case is meaningful, for the author was a prominent figure within the British New Left, besides having played a central role in the establishment of Cultural Studies, two outstanding processes in contemporary western history. In addition to the relevance of this subject within Intellectual History alone, Williams¿ concern in articulating cultural practices and historical development is considered a pivotal one, whose main goal was to forge a new conception of criticism. The manner in which this unfolded, in distinct ways over different milestones in his intellectual path, is one of the guiding principles in this research. It configures an exercise that, overall, aims to contribute to enrich both the understanding of a particular intellectual environment and the epistemology of materialistic criticism in general. This research featured the analyses of Williams works as well as his personal and professional files located both at Richard Burton Archives, in the city of Swansea, Wales and at Weston Library, in the city of Oxford, England (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 17/08999-8 - Tradition, inovation and historicity in Raymond Williams cultural materialism
• Grantee: Carla Rocha Baute
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master