How does Williams explain ‘culture’?
- He states that culture is ordinary and shows similarities across all cultures: culture is based on finding common meanings and directions, purpose and meaning are expressed in institutions, art and in learning.
-two aspects of culture: known meanings and directions which we are trained to, new meaning and observations, which are offered and tested
> duality of traditional and creative aspects, common and individual meanings
Which two “senses of culture” or attitudes does Williams reject (“that I know but refuse to learn”)?
1) perception that culture is separated from ordinary things: He explains that culture cannot be separated from ordinary work and actions, because ordinary things built the basis for all further things
2) ordinary people are influenced and exploited by journalists, who, instead of using their skills for writing good, participate in a capitalist system and in advertisement, he is highly critical of them and the subsequent cheapening
Williams mentions “two serious influences” that he encountered in Cambridge. Which are they?
- Marxism: culture is to be seen in relation to its underlying system of production, ) culture is a way of living, education is restricted (only the “deserving poor” get educational opportunities)
- teaching of Leavis
Which Marxist positions does Williams not agree with and why?
- the working class is excluded from English culture: he explains that they have their own institutions and that the English way of life is largely shaped by structures which are not high-class and privileged.
- the masses are ignorant, and culture is dying; he explains that culture is constantly changing
- the socialist approach to prescribe the way of thinking, writing and learning
What is F.R. Leavis’s diagnosis of English culture (“his version of what is wrong with English culture”)?
Leavis states that the industrialization destroys English culture, “mechanized vulgarity sweeps in” und human responses are cheapened, the only defence is in education, because it allows certain people to understand what is happening and maintain “the finest individual values”.
-> “pre-industrial England was better”
What is Williams’s response to Leavis?
disagrees as the industrialization brought so many benefits for people: new opportunities for work, better life for people, workers formed trade unions for the first time, circumstances of life changed for the better, also in medical sector (contraceptives)
