Culture and materialism: Raymond Williams and the Marxist debate.

摘要

This thesis represents a study of Raymond Williams's work in the sociology of culture. It attempts to critically interrogate and assess Williams's theory of "cultural materialism". The argument put forth is that William's work, thought not unproblematic, represents a significant reconstruction of Marxist theory. The focus of the study includes: tracing the genealogy of the Marxist problematic; an analysis of Williams's intervention into the Marxian materialist debate; an extended discussion of Marxist cultural theory and Williams's relationship to issues raised in the literature; the development, as an extension of insights gained from cultural materialism, of a critical theory of culture that attempts to theorize a specific cultural form--the urban crime-drama cinema of the 1970's--within the actual historical conditions of its production.