Williams, Raymond (2005). “Chapter 2,” Culture and Materialism: Selected Essays. New York, NY: Verso. 11-63.“One order of psychic x-ray vision, please,” said Raymond Williams. Actually he said, “We need a theory” – a new critical history of literature and society…a new cultural theory to examine the production of the arts, including literature, because he believes they are “materials so laden with values that if we do not deal directly with them we have literally nothing to deal with” (14). Williams might as well have said he needed psychic x-ray vision because his cultural theory seeks to extrapolate meaning beyond the art’s or book’s physical manifestation. The purpose is to study material objects within the literature as “projected reality” (16). Art and literature are rare physical forms which embody and communicate a multitude of cultural values thus related to social history. In order for meanings in literature to be communicated, the materials in which the literature writes about or incorporates in its narrative are coded with cultural understanding. To understand past coding, one must understand the hegemonic culture which dominated to derive the traditional values. It is important to note that Williams also believes that hegemonic values are not exclusionary. Though these values and meaning may dominate, culture consists of “alternative opinions and attitudes” which are recorded as well. Since literature is such an integral element of culture and social history, they cannot be separated and should not be studied separately. To study society one must study history and literature; to study history one must study the literature and society; to study literature one must study society and history. Additionally, one is not studying the object or the artifact, rather one is studying the materials projected in the artifact.
How does this apply to literature?
Williams is the first critical thinker encounters thus far who sees the connection of cultural artifacts that are literally written into form by language and words. These artifacts of culture are his “projected realities.” Just to show you how much a Trekkie I am, I envision this very much as a ship’s hologram – real but not real.
The book is real. I can feel it. It is paper, ink and glue. The book has a function. It communicates by being a vehicle for words and language. The language transmits ideas and forms from the real world. Therefore, not only is the book an artifact but the ideas as well. These are what an old anthropology professor called “ideofacts.”
How do we study history in literature? How do we write it in literature? That’s going to take a bit more exploring.
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