Page 84 - Cultural Studies and Political Economy

Genealogy of Cultural Studies 73

garding transmission, he stated that “any governing body will seek to implant
the ‘right’ ideas in the minds of those whom it governs,” but then quickly
qualified that observation by noting that interpretation by message receivers
depends not only upon their skill with the language but as well on their
“whole experience,” adding: “Any real theory of communication is a theory
of community.” 80
Williams’ version of cultural studies, as inaugurated in his foundational
book, differs markedly from contemporary poststructuralist cultural stud-
ies. Many poststructuralists maintain that meaning is in language, that one
can never escape language to get at the “real” state of affairs, or indeed that
no “real” exists beyond language. For Williams, in contrast, changes in the
meanings of words (for instance, culture, industry, art, democracy), and
the invention of new words, are responses to changes in the lived condi-
tions. Changes in the meanings of words, for him, constituted “a record”
of reactions to changes in social, economic, and political life. That record
is a type of “map” guiding explorations into the nature of the changes. 81
Among the words originating in the “decisive period” from 1750 to 1850
are: “ideology, intellectual, rationalism, scientist, humanitarian, utilitar-
ian, romanticism, atomistic; bureaucracy, capitalism, collectivism, com-
mercialism, communism, doctrinaire, equalitarian, liberalism, masses, me-
dieval and medievalism, operative (noun), primitivism, proletariat (a new
word for ‘mob’), socialism, unemployment; cranks, highbrow, isms, and
pretentious.” 82
According to Williams, moreover, words and concepts developed in previ-
ous times cannot be applied with equanimity or without modification to cur-
rent situations. Meanings change as lived experience changes; there is inter-
action between language and lived conditions. 83 Williams’ emphasis on
language reflects his vocation as an English professor, and that orientation he
certainly shared with contemporary poststructuralists. However, by insisting
on a two-way interaction between language and material conditions, he was
far removed from contemporary poststructuralism.
Culture and Society was first in what can now be regarded as a family of
books, others including The Long Revolution (1961), Keywords (1976), Prob-
lems in Materialism and Culture (1980), and The Year 2000 (1983). 84 The
later tomes further clarified and extended the author’s position regarding in-
terdependencies between culture and political-economic conditions and
trends. Now I will focus on matters raised but left underdeveloped in Culture
and Society but dealt with more extensively in his later books—in particular,
Williams’ treatments of the “mass,” the relation between base and super-
structure (economic determinism), and technological determinism.