A Study Of Williams' Cultural Materialism

Raymond Williams is a famous Western culturist and Marxist thinker in the 20 th century,and plays an indispensable role in the whole history of Western Marxism.Williams' thought of cultural materialism is a new method of cultural research and analysis which inherits the native culture of England and combines Marxist theory with other Western Marxist scholars' thoughts.Its contents cover a wide range of fields such as culture,literature,philosophy,ethics and political science.In his cultural thought,Williams defined culture as a "whole life style",clarified the material production and practical logic of culture,corrected the social value and significance of modern "culture",and further promoted the development of mass culture.Starting from the background of the formation of Williams' cultural materialism,this paper analyzes it from two aspects: theoretical background and practical background.It reveals the main research object and theoretical origin of Williams' cultural materialism,and further demonstrates the rationality and inevitability of the existence of Williams' cultural materialism.Then,starting with four basic key words,it expounds Williams' concept of "culture",the renovation of Marx's "determinism",Williams' theory of "cultural hegemony" and "sense structure".Through combing and deliberating,the paper explores the theoretical characteristics of Williams' cultural materialism,and tries to make a scientific and dialectical evaluation of Williams' cultural materialism,Marxist related theories and the current situation of China's culture in many aspects and objectively.Furthermore,it points out the positive significance of the thought to the development of Marxist cultural theory and the cultural construction of our country,and criticizes the tendency of "pan culturism" existing in the thought itself,in order to provide a feasible analysis thinking for the cultural research in this field in our country.Williams' cultural materialism provides us with a reliable reference for exploring the value and significance of culture and developing Marxist cultural theory.Although his thought is limited by subjective and objective conditions,there are certain theoretical limitations.But generally speaking,it is the reconstruction of the concept of "culture" and the improvement and development of Marxist cultural theory.