Page 44 - Decoding Culture

THE WAY WE WERE 37

positive potential of human activity. In this respect Leavisism
retains a rather stronger conception of human agency than is found
in other mass culture formulations. For example, in distinguishing
his views from marxist theories of culture, Leavis (1952: 184)
claims that although 'material conditions count, there is a certain
measure of spiritual autonomy in human affairs, and [that) human
intelligence, choice and will do really and effectively operate,
expressing an inherent human nature'. To be concerned with lit­
erature, he continues, is to recognize the importance of the
creative individual and 'the truth that it is only in individuals that
society lives' (ibid: 185).
Thirdly, Leavisism is distinct in its development of a method of
close textual analysis which, although centrally concerned to
expose the virtues or failings of literary works, is also generally
applicable to other forms of culture. Though their aim is hardly one
of approbation, the examples of modern cultural materials that
Leavis and Thompson (1933) put forward for teachers' use are
designed to be examined using Leavisism's distinctive critical appa­
ratus. It is the use of this method that later leads to so-called
'left-Leavisism' - the application of close textual analysis to popular
cultural forms with a view to revealing their positive qualities rather
than demonstrating their destructive impact on civilized values.
Given the significance of that development for the emergence of
cultural studies, it is necessary here to examine the distinctive fea­
tures of the 'Leavisite method' a little more closely. So what is (or
was) Leavisite method?
The question is difficult to answer in short compass. One can
point to, say, the analyses of George Eliot, Henry James and Joseph
Conrad that form the bulk of The Great Tradition (Leavis, 1960) as
instances of his 'method' in action, but this begs the question: what
is it that distinguishes this approach? Revealingly, Leavis himself
was always reluctant to formulate his position in general terms. In

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