Raymond Williams Culture and Society PDF

Raymond Williams
Culture and Society

Dr. Amrita Sen
Online Teaching Resource for M.A. English Students
Module One
Raymond Williams’ Introduction
• Williams identifies the end of the eighteenth century as a period

of economic and social transition.
• He chooses 5 keywords – industry, democracy, class, art and
culture – to chart their semantic shift, and in turn, connect this
shift with a larger discursive transition during the late eighteenth
century.
• Specifically, Williams wants to show how the Industrial Revolution
brings about a fundamental change not only in the economic base
but also in the ideological structures.
Keyword: Industry
Industry continued
• Williams argues that the word “industry” initially meant skill or

diligence, a connotation that still survives today.
• The predominant meaning of industry, however, now means mechanized
manufacturing processes and institutions.
• So in other words when we now speak of industry, we usually mean
industrial production or industrial unit. That is to say, we understand a
specific mechanized means of production. For example the coal industry,
the IT industry, or terms such university-industry interface, etc.
• When we speak of industry, we rarely imply personal skill or diligence.
Consider for example the related term industriousness.
Industry continued
• Williams identifies Adam Smith (1723 –1790), a Scottish economist

and philosopher, as one of the first writers to use the term
“industry” in this new sense in his The Wealth of Nations.
• Of note, The Wealth of Nations (1776) is a seminal work that
attempted to take stock of the changes brought about by the
Industrial Revolution, covering topics such as the accumulation od
staock, division of labour, etc.
• Smith’s magnum opus had influenced later writers including Karl
Marx. (Think back on in-class lectures on Raymond Williams and
the New Left).
Industry Continued
• Williams draws attention to the term “Industrial Revolution.”

• French writers use it first in 1820.
• Think of the French Revolution
• Industrialization brings about an upheaval, a radical change,
therefore the term “revolution”.
Keyword: Democracy
Keyword: Democracy
• Etymology - Greek: δημοκρατία dēmokratía. Demos=people,

Kratia=rule
• Williams translates as “government by the people”
• In European political history there had been previous moved for
autonomy, such as the Magna Carta (c. 1215); however, this did
not imply the universal call for political participation that began
with the American and French Revolutions
• Further Independent reading and research:
• https://www.bl.uk/magna-carta/articles/magna-carta-an-introduction
Keyword: Democracy
• The American Revolution saw the break

away of the thirteen colonies from the
British Empire. The events, including the
Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party,
the War of Independence occurred
between 1763 to 1787.
• Writers looked upon this as a move
towards greater rights and political
representation for ordinary men.
• Further Independent reading and
research:
• https://www.bl.uk/the-american-
revolution/articles/american-revolution-
timeline
Keyword: Democracy
• The French Revolution which popularized the

ideas of Liberté (liberty), fraternité
(fraternity or brotherhood), and égalité
(equality) lasted from approximately 1789 to
1799.
• The radical ideas of the French Revolution
would greatly influence thinkers and writers
across Europe. The British Romantic poets
especially would draw upon the new ideas of
French philosophers and the spirit of the
Revolution in their work.
• Further Independent reading and research:
• https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-
victorians/articles/the-impact-of-the-french-
revolution-in-britain
Keyword: Class
Keyword: Class
• Williams is not arguing that there were no terms or words in the

English language that denoted social hierarchy. For instance, the
word “rank” was used to signify social difference.
• The term “class” was initially used within a pedagogic context. As
Williams says, it meant “division or group in schools and colleges”
(xiii).
• The new connotation of “class” as signifier of social hierarchy
develops during the late eighteenth century, around the same
time that the meanings of the other four terms were changing.
Keyword: Class
• The word “class” is more “indefinite” or flexible that the term

rank, which within the English context would imply social divisions
based on hereditary titles, and the implicit divisions between the
aristocracy the commoners.
• Williams outlines the use of the term class, beginning with “lower
class” and moving on to “middle” and “upper class.”
• The term class (and not rank) would play an important role in
Marxist critical thinking. Williams gestures towards this by
referring to terms such as “class prejudice” and “class
consciousness”
Keyword: Class – changing definitions
Keyword: Art
Keyword: Art
• Like the term “industry,” the word “art” has shifted from the
sense of skill to a more specialized meaning.
• The terms artist, genius, and aesthete acquire new individualized
meanings.
• An artist now means a person who has a specific aesthetic skill.
For example, a painter, a voice artist, etc. The artist now is an
individual who possesses unique talent, and the word is closely
associated with the term genius. It not longer means a craftsman’s
skill.
Keyword: Culture
Keyword: Culture
• For Williams, it is the word “culture” that brings together and

helps him understand the transitions in the other key words.
• Culture, in other words, is the filter or lens through which art,
industry, class and democracy must be understood.
• The word culture has gone through multiple changes in meaning,
from “natural growth” to “a whole way of life” (xiv).
Link to online version of text:
• https://archive.org/details/culturesociety17001850mbp/page/n19
/mode/2up
• ADDITIONAL MATERIALS

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Raymond Williams

Culture and Society

• Williams identifies the end of the eighteenth century as a period

• Williams argues that the word “industry” initially meant skill or

• Williams identifies Adam Smith (1723 –1790), a Scottish economist

• Williams draws attention to the term “Industrial Revolution.”

• Etymology - Greek: δημοκρατία dēmokratía. Demos=people,

• The American Revolution saw the break

• The French Revolution which popularized the

• Williams is not arguing that there were no terms or words in the

• The word “class” is more “indefinite” or flexible that the term

• For Williams, it is the word “culture” that brings together and

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