A Study Of Raymond Williams’ Literary Thought

Raymond Williams was an important Marxist thinker in England in the middle of the 20 th century.He spent his whole life trying to construct the theoretical framework of cultural research and text analysis,looking for the relationship between literature and social history dimension,and devoted himself to the cultural education practice of the working class.Williams’ academic career started with literature,which helped him to carry out cultural studies later.His literary thoughts are rich and complex,and their contents are huge and crisscross.This paper analyzes Raymond Williams’ outstanding literary thoughts,combines internal and external studies,uses comparative analysis,abstract generalization and concrete analysis to study the development of Williams’ literary thoughts and the formation of the theoretical content.This paper is divided into four parts.The introduction part introduces the reason for selecting the topic,Williams’ life and academic track,research status and research methods at home and abroad,and explains the relevant proprietary concepts mentioned by Williams.Chapter one,"Tracing the origin of Williams’ literary thought",retrospects the theoretical source of Williams’ literary thought,discusses the British cultural tradition including Leavis’ elitism,and the influence of The British Marxist tradition including the Marxist cultural view and the British New left movement on Williams’ literary thought.The second chapter,"Williams’ literature essence thought",mainly in the aspect of idealism.Williams,through the analysis of historical evolution of the concept of "literature" the keywords,see literature as with other influence each other in the field of discourse practice category,and further argues that the marxist theory,to apply the "practical consciousness" in literature,This paper discusses the changes and characteristics of literary form in social activities and focuses on the social process of literary practice.The third chapter,Williams’ view of literary history,includes Williams’ view of literary production and development of literature.The first part is the view of literary production.Williams uses the critical method of "key words",centering on the key words of "foundation and superstructure","decision and production" and "reflection",and carries out three effective analysis and criticism closely related to it.In the second part,On the basis of the analysis and criticism of the socialist practices of Augustus Putin,John Ruskin and William Morris,Williams advocated the view of literary history,and required that the judgment and measurement of literary value should be combined with the development of social history.Therefore,Williams stressed that the study of literature should pay attention to the external study of literature.The fourth chapter "Williams’ view of Literary criticism",Williams literature research from a wide range of perspectives,especially attaches great importance to the problem of literary integrity,he put literature in the cultural perspective.On the basis of affirming the value and function of literary culture,Williams constructed the thought of organic community to save the cultural crisis and devoted himself to establishing a view of mass culture.In addition,Williams advocated that literary studies should be based on the study of cultural history.The conclusion mainly summarizes the influence and value of Williams’ literary thought.Williams’ literary thought focuses on the theory,practice and social history of literature,and literature and even culture play an important role in the dynamic process of the material development of the whole society.Williams defines literature with the theory of cultural materialism,and the common culture constructed by Williams has a strong utopian color.