On Raymond Williams’ Cultural Theory

Raymond Williams was the object of this study, in the paper, I conducted a comprehensive study on Williams’ cultural theory. Focusing on his definition of “culture”, the idea of “cultural materialism” and “common culture”, and many other important conceptions, Williams’ cultural theory was systematically explained and interpreted, and be revealed the democratic values and socialistic values of his cultural theory.As for the chapter arrangement, the “Introduction” section of this paper is about the origin of the topic and the research status about the related field, it also contains a brief literature review and the basic research method of this paper. Chapter one, “The Definition Of Culture” introduces the Raymond Williams’ unique understanding and definition of culture, which is the base of his whole cultural theory. After summarizing kinds of historical theories, analyzing the reality and learning from predecessor researchers, Williams pointed out that “culture is a whole way of life.” Chapter two, "Cultural Materialism” is a new theory about how to deal with the characteristic of culture. Williams disagreed with the method of “reductionism”, and promoted the method of “configuration”, besides, Williams created an idea of “four systems” to interpret our society, which constitutes Williams’ “cultural materialism”. Chapter three, “The Active Culture”, this chapter focused on two characteristics of Williams’ cultural theory: active, and creative. Williams emphasized the activity and creativity of culture itself. Our society is contagious, specific, and dynamic, meantime, the creative structure of culture itself can be an important factor to promote human development. Chapter four, “’Common Culture’ And ‘Long Revolution’” was concentrated on “common culture” and “long revolution”, ”common culture” is the ideal, or we can say the ultimate pursuit of Williams’ cultural theory, and how to reach the condition of “common culture”? Williams thought that we should take a way of long revolution, Williams also called it cultural revolution.” Chapter five, “The Process Of Democracy And Socialism ” discussed the aim of Williams’ cultural theory, that is to realize the real democracy and real socialism. Williams is a socialist, and also a activist, he did his research not for culture itself, but for the happiness of human, in other words, for democracy and socialism. The last chapter, “Conclusion”, summarized the value, as well as the main contributions of Williams’ cultural theory.In general, this paper is not one that just introduce Williams’ thought, but one that tried to point out the inner relationship of his theory, from the perspective of democracy and socialism. As a result, this paper not only did an full range and innovative interpretation, but also revealed the values and contributions of Williams’ cultural theory.