Research On The Popular Culture Thought Of Raymond Williams

Raymond Williams,one of the representatives of“the New Left”,is the most important Marxism cultural critic in 20^th century Great Britain.His influence started a great upsurge of cultural studies in“the New Left”and academic circles in Great Britain.Popular culture is the starting point of his theoretical research,and is also the access though which he expressed his political demands.Through Williams'thoughts of popular culture,we can see the path of continuous exploration of socialism by British neo-Marxism.Williams'thought on popular cultural promoted the rise of British cultural studies,actively promoted the development of Marxist cultural theory,and provided a pioneering new method for subsequent cultural studies.Williams'research on popular culture began in the 1950s.Under the background of the“Clash of Cultures”waged by“the new left”in Britain,Williams tried to blaze a way in socialism revolution by discussing popular culture.In this process,he criticized the British conservative cultural view to pave the way for the legitimacy of popular culture.Williams'family background,education,and political experiences also supported for his theory.Influenced by Marxism in his early life,Williams redefined the popular culture:first,he organized and redefined the concept of“culture”as“the whole way of life”.Secondly,he changed the traditional ideas of the masses.Third,he summarized that popular culture should be spontaneous,potentially liberating,in high quality,different from commercial culture,and also have pursuit similar to Marx's philosophy.In later years,Williams absorbed the theory of western Marxist and propose the cultural materialism.By using this method,he made further analysis on the popular culture.Williams criticized the“base–superstructure”dichotomy in“orthodox”Marxism theory and reaffirmed the materiality of culture as a superstructure.Thus he pointed out that technological progress is the material basis for the rising and production of the popular culture,meanwhile he reminded us about the social attributes behind the communication technology.To realize the socialism revolution,Williams studies the popular culture for the following two reasons.Firstly,popular culture originally contains the value of cultural democracy and equality.Secondly,if the political demand for getting hegemony of popular culture can be fulfilled,the socialism revolutionary consciousness of the British working class can be aroused.Williams'thought on popular culture fully embodies the Marxist standpoint,and enriches Marxist cultural theory in theoretical content and analytical method.It also provides the research paradigm of culturalism and the research perspective of“cultural sociology”for the British“New Left”.More importantly,this theory also provides important implication for today's China's popular cultural construction in terms of cultural subjectivity,fundamental standpoint and value orientation.Williams'thought on popular culture is the crystallization of British social reality and Marxist theory.On this basis,it reformed the historical materialism,and explored the way for the public to pursue the socialist vision from the perspective of individual experience and practice.Compared to the Frankfurt school,western Marxist,and theorists from other schools,Williams studied the popular culture in the affirmative dimension.He was more self-conscious in the application of the basic theory of Marxism,which strengthened the internal connection with the historical materialism of Marxism.Also,by studying the popular culture,Williams extended the horizon of Marxism to current cultural status and contributed to the development of Marxist aesthetics.