ABSTRACT

Raymond Williams is recognized as one of the founding fathers of cultural studies, on which he has had a profound influence in Britain and globally, and, even more broadly, on cultural criticism and theory around the world. Williams’ writings have effectively shaped the ways people understand the complexity of the notion of ‘culture’ and many of the ways it has been taken up in scholarly practice. The present collection endeavours to give evidence of some of the enor-

mous breadth and originality of contemporary thinking on Raymond Williams and, at the same time, to mark the important influence of this scholar and critic. It brings together contributions from a variety of countries, disciplines, generations and traditions. Starting from Williams’ most wellknown ideas and notions, the book will take the reader to the fringes of his work and to approaches that relate his concepts to ongoing debates. This introduction follows the course ofWilliams’ renowned and recognized

arguments and achievements, which range from a literary critique of culture to cultural materialism. We interrupt our journey where our contributors took inspiration from Williams’ work. At these nodal points we insert summaries of their contributions, which present, in brief close-ups, snap-shot-like, some details of the many international perspectives on Williams’ work presented in this collection. Our journey begins in the early summer of 1970 when a remarkable

meeting took place in Cambridge. Rudi Dutschke, tragic hero of the German anti-authoritarian movement, who had been living in England for a while to recover from the effects of the assassination attempt made on him on Easter Monday 1968, presented Raymond Williams, Fellow of Jesus College, with a research proposal on Georg Lukács’ History and Class Consciousness. Dutschke, a former student leader, wanted to study for a doctorate in Cambridge under the renowned economist Joan Robinson, and had to undergo the usual tedious admissions ritual – such as the presentation of references and reports and talking to representatives of the University’s governing body and important professors – before he was eventually accepted by the university that same summer.1 His meeting with

Williams would probably have passed completely unnoticed had he not been expelled from the country at the beginning of 1971 on the grounds of supposedly subversive political activities, following a lengthy period of uncertainty during which figures such as Leo Löwenthal and Michael Foot intervened in his favour.2