The Study On Raymond Williams’ Common Culture

Due to the post-war social and historic situation in UK, the rise of “New Left Movement”, personal experience of Williams and the disapproval reviews that elitism culture makes about mass culture during the social transformation period, as the key figure of cultural Marxism, Raymond Henry Williams defines culture as “a whole way of life”. He proposes to combine culture in common sense(life style) and culture in individual sense(literature, art and so on),which has formed his integral cultural view.Williams says, “There is no so-called ‘the masses’ but the observation method of regarding of people as mass.” This is a firm defense for mass and mass culture. Meanwhile, he made some reflections on the Marxist philosophy especially the model of economic foundation and superstructure. He considers culture as a part of material production, thus highlighting the function of culture in the framework of historical materialism. His materialistic cultural view is also formed. Based on the above arguments, Williams has made deep analysis of the meaning of common culture and has thrown light on its characteristics of equality, participation, diversity and dynamics. He puts forward the concept of community under the principle of friendly neighborhood, holding that common cultures should be realized in such ways as democratic transmission, natural development and support, cultural expansion and so forth. So the development law of common culture is brought to light systematically.By making comparison to the mass culture theory of the Frankfurt School, this thesis holds that Williams’ thoughts of mass culture have revealed the subjectivity of the mass and the function of mass culture. Also the political demand of cultural democracy can be seen in such thoughts. They are the deep analysis and development of Marx’s liberation of human values and the real community thought in culture. Williams’ thoughts have great significance to China’s cultural construction in this new era.