The Raymond Williams Society

On the blog this month we have an interview with Raymond Williams, conducted by Italian academic Paola Splendore in the late 1970s in Cambridge and published in Ombre Rosse (in Italian) and Anglistica (in English). Williams had visited Naples in 1972, following the translation of Culture and Society (in 1968) and on the invitation of Fernando Ferrara and Lidia Curti. Richard Hoggart and Stuart Hall had spoken at the Istituto Universitario Orientale in Naples and recommended Williams to Ferrara and Curti (see Ferrara, ‘Raymond Williams and the Italian Left’ in Raymond Williams: Critical Perspectives, ed. Terry Eagleton, Polity, 1989). Splendore translated both The Long Revolution (in 1979) and Problems in Materialism and Culture (in 1983) into Italian, while other translated works include Marxism and Literature (in 1979), Culture (in 1983), and Television (in 1981). More recently, Border Country was published in Italy by PaginaUno. Many thanks to Paola Splendore for allowing the Raymond Williams Society to re-publish this fascinating insight into Williams’s thinking on Cultural Studies, Marxism, and Psychoanalysis.

Continue reading Cultural Studies, Marxism, and Psychoanalysis: Paola Splendore interviews Raymond Williams (1978)

Originally published in The English Magazine in the spring of 1979 and titled ‘Making it Active’, we are delighted to be able to make available this difficult to find interview with Raymond Williams, thanks to the generosity of interviewer Ken Worpole. It’s the first of four interviews to be published as monthly blogs as the society concludes the centenary celebrations ahead of Williams’s birthday in August.

Continue reading The Politics of Reading, Writing, and Form: Ken Worpole interviews Raymond Williams (1979)

We are delighted to announce that registration is now open for our centenary conference in Manchester on 22-23 April 2022. You can book your place and check out the schedule here. We will have keynotes from Rhian E. Jones, Daniel G. Williams, and the Stuart Hall Foundation, along with the book launch of Culture and Politics by Williams (edited by Phil O’Brien), the performance of Yes! Yes! UCS! by Townsend Theatre Productions, and 12 panels over two days.

Continue reading ‘Raymond Williams @ 100: A Centenary Conference’ – Schedule Released and Registration Open!

This week saw the publication of Culture and Politics: Class, Writing, Socialism, a new collection of essays by Raymond Williams. On the blog we have an exclusive short extract from the book’s introductory essay by editor Phil O’Brien. Culture and Politics, published by Verso, contains five previously unpublished essays alongside five uncollected pieces, including material on Herbert Read (a lost chapter from Culture and Society), Marxism, Popular Culture, working-class writing, Pierre Bourdieu, and modernism.

Continue reading Raymond Williams on Culture and Politics: An Introduction (Extract)

There’s just one week left to get abstracts and panel proposals in for ‘Raymond Williams @ 100: A Centenary Conference’ to be held in Manchester on Friday-Saturday 22-23 April 2022. They should be no longer than 250 words (1000 words for panels) and emailed to raymondwilliamssocietyrws@gmail.com by Friday 17^th December. The finalised conference schedule will be announced in late January 2022.

Continue reading Reminder: Call for Papers for Raymond Williams @ 100: A Centenary Conference

On Wednesday 17th November the society will host the final event in the online autumn series to celebrate Raymond Williams’s centenary. Our chair Ben Harker will be joined by Paul Stasi, the editor of a new book Raymond Williams at 100, alongside Madhu Krishnan and Anna Kornbluh, who have contributed chapters titled ‘Structures of Feeling, Late Capitalism and the Making of African Literature in the Global Literary Marketplace’ and ‘Mediation Metabolized’, respectively. Stasi’s chapter is on ‘Inexplicable Goodness: Raymond Williams, Charles Dickens and The Ministry of Utmost Happiness‘. The free talk will start at 6pm (GMT) and is hosted on Zoom with the link to join here. There’s no need to register, simply click on the relevant link at the start time.

Continue reading ‘Raymond Williams at 100’ – A Panel Discussion

This Wednesday (October 13th), Daniel Hartley will deliver the second event in our Raymond Williams Centenary 2021 Online Autumn Series. Daniel will be discussing ‘Crisis, Method, and Culture’ in the work of Williams, focusing specifically on crisis as a mode of thinking about culture, via an engagement with class, Thomas Hardy, and Louis Althusser. He will also offer reflections on contemporary debates around the ‘Green New Deal’ and ‘re-peasantization’ struggles. The free talk will start at 6pm (BST) and is hosted on Zoom with the link to join here. There’s no need to register, simply click on the relevant link at the start time.

Continue reading Daniel Hartley on Raymond Williams: ‘Crisis, Method, and Culture’

Hosted by the Raymond Williams Society, in collaboration with Key Words: A Journal of Cultural Materialism, ‘Raymond Williams @ 100: A Centenary Conference’ in Manchester on 22-23 April 2022 marks the culmination of a series of events to assess the relevance and reach of Williams’s work in his centenary year.

Continue reading CFP – Raymond Williams @ 100: A Centenary Conference

As part of the Raymond Williams centenary celebrations, the society is delighted to publish an extract from his renowned lecture ‘When Was Modernism?’, delivered as the Lewis Fry Memorial Lecture at the University of Bristol in March 1987. It’s a hugely influential essay but until now has only been available in ‘reconstructed’ form. That version, roughly a third of the length of the original lecture, was made by Fred Inglis from his own notes and those of Williams. It was published in 1989 in New Left Review and the posthumous collection Politics of Modernism. An unknown recording of the lecture was recently discovered and the complete version will be published in the forthcoming Culture and Politics: Class, Writing, Socialism – the first Williams book for more than three decades to include ‘new’ material.

Continue reading ‘When Was Modernism?’ by Raymond Williams

To celebrate Raymond Williams’s centenary this year (August 31st), the society is running a series of online events in the autumn. Lynsey Hanley will deliver the centenary lecture on Wednesday October 6th; Daniel Hartley will speak on Williams on Wednesday October 13th; and Anna Kornbluh, Madhu Krishnan, and Paul Stasi discuss Raymond Williams at 100 on Wednesday November 17th. All the events are free and start at 6pm. Joining details here. Subscribe to the society newsletter and follow our blog to keep up-to-date with further announcements.

Continue reading Raymond Williams Centenary Online Autumn Series