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Zusatztext “The left’s foremost cultural historian and critic ... an acute and perceptive political commentator.”— Comment “Williams is the Western thinker who! along with Antonio Gramsci! has done most to enlarge our understanding of the political complexities of culture.”— Village Voice Informationen zum Autor Raymond Williams (1921–1988) was for many years Professor of Drama at the University of Cambridge. Among his many books are Culture and Society ! Culture and Materialism! Politics and Letters ! Problems in Materialism and Culture ! and several novels. Zusammenfassung Raymond Williams is a towering presence in cultural studies! most importantly as the founder of the approach that has come to be known as “cultural materialism.” Yet Williams’s method was always open-ended and fluid! and this volume collects together his most significant work from over a twenty-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 illustrations 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.
