Towards The Sociology Of Culture

Raymond Williams is one of the most important Marxist critics in 20th century. And he is also the founder of Cultural Studies. The theme of this dissertation is Williams thought on culture. Through close reading of his works and the analysis of his definition of culture, it is believed that there is an evident tendency in his works from literary study to cultural study, and Williams tried consciously to establish the sociology of culture. His thought on culture is very attractive and illuminative.Williams made two different definitions on culture: Culture is a whole way of the life, and culture is a realized signifying system. Both the definitions are consistent in reflecting the wholeness of social life. The former insists on that culture is ordinary, and confirms the contribution of the mass. The latter emphasizes on the signifying character of culture, claiming that culture is embedded in social practices. Both the definitions indicate that Williams turned from literary criticism to cultural study. They are the beginning of his sociology of culture.Williams is greatly influenced by Marxism. He seriously rethinks about Marx's proposition of base and superstructure. Williams admires Lukacs's concept of totality and Gramsci's concept of hegemony. Distinguishing different factors in culture as dominant, emergent and residual, he establishes the dynamic mode of analysis on the totality of culture. In the end, he turns to the sociology of culture on the understanding of social life as a whole and the materialness of culture. Williams's sociology of culture centers on two subjects. One is cultural production. Resorting to Marxist paradigm of production, Williams explores the problems of productive forces, reproduction, institutions and formations. The other is communication. Williams thinks communication as a basic way of social organization, understanding the society and culture in the perspective of communication. He sees the means of communication as the means of production,and criticizes the idea of mass communication, suggesting that advertising is a magic system, a failure in offering meaning and values for the society. Williams fight strongly against authoritarian system, paternal system and commercial system in communication. He conceives a democratic system. And he also discusses television– the main technology and cultural form of modern society, criticizing technological determinism and analyzing the cultural form of television. Williams's discussion of cultural production and communication is his initial attempt to establish the sociology of culture.