Page 47 - Decoding Culture

40 DECODING CULTURE
by a formal adherence to the hypothetico-deductive view of theory
which, in practice, turns out to have no real methodological con­
sequences. Also, both are unable to grapple constructively with the
remarkable cultural differentiation characteristic of modern soci­
eties, leading them to the familiar error of misperceiving all
cultural change as cultural decline. And even though there is no
intrinsic reason why Leavisite method, in the form of close textual
analysis, should not constructively be applied to popular culture,
Leavis' own somewhat apocalyptic views on the failings of mass cul­
ture run counter to any such application. Some of those he
influenced, however, were less restricted in this respect, and in
the 1950s the terms of the culture and civilization tradition began to
shift.
Initially, at least, the representatives of the changing tradition
retained the familiar Leavisite desire to encourage discrimination
among forms of culture and, through education, to ensure that
new generations were appropriately equipped to adopt an attitude
of critical evaluation. They also retained a positive humanistic view
of the social agent as a creative force, though this was now applied
to a wider social range than had been apparent in Leavisism's
ingrained elitism. And they retained much of Leavisite epistemol­
ogy, both in their continuing emphasis on the necessity for close
textual analysis and in their tendency to hold to a somewhat unre­
flective and pragmatic empiricism on the question of the role and
function of theorising. Where they began to differ most seriously
was not on these general epistemological and ontological commit­
ments, but on the basic evaluation of culture. Though still sharing
the founding Leavisite moral concern about the need for a critical
response to undesirable features of twentieth-century culture,
Hoggart (1958) , Williams (1961) and Hall and Whannel (1964)
rejected the tradition's out-and-out elitism, arguing that there were
forms of popular culture which were of sufficient significance to

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