Raymond Williams the Analysis of Culture

8/10/2019 Raymond Williams the Analysis of Culture

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Paula Horta

Departamento de Estudos Anglsticos

Ano Lectivo 2014/2015: 1 Semestre

Cultura & Sociedade


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! cultura a busca da perfeio humana, que seopera atravs da leitura no de todas as obrasmas do melhor que foi pensado e dito nomundo, ou seja, a leitura das grandes obras,

definidas e seleccionadas por intelectuais atravsdo exerccio da crtica literria.

! Arnold afirma que a qualidade da vida humanadepende da leitura das grandes obras.

in our present society, a mans life of each day depends for itssolidity and value on whether he reads during that day, and, farmore still, on what he reads during it. (p.6)


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! Arnold est preocupado em humanizar a sociedademecanizada e externa sua contempornea,

atravs do seu conceito de cultura.!

esta tarefa estaria entregue aos intelectuais,defensores da excelncia e dos valores humanos,valores estes materializados na literatura.

!

posteriormente Arnold parece desistir do carcterou componente social do conceito enquantoperfeio geral estendida a toda a sociedade

!

passa a delimitar o domnio da cultura e domelhor que foi pensado e dito no mundonumarea restrita, privilegiada, reservada a uma elitecultural.


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! Arnold especializa cultura ao domnio da

literatura e das artes, operando uma cisoprofunda entre estes domnios e asociedade, ou ainda, entre o individual e osocial.

! Designa a busca da perfeio humanacomo um processo que consiste numacondio interna, numa condio interiorda mente e do esprito, literalmente oposta civilizao mecnica e externa suacontempornea.


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! Raymond Williams insurge-se contra estaacepo de cultura, que salienta a experincia

pessoal e privada, acima da realidade social.! Williams concebe o conceito de cultura

como um processo social fundamental quegera, constitui modos de vida especficos e

diferentes.! Ao proclamar Culture is Ordinary, Williams

nega o carcter elitista que o conceito atento possuira e estende-o a toda asociedade postulando uma cultura comum,pertena de todos os indivduos quecompem o todo social.


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!

Williams defende a abolio das hierarquiasentre uma cultura de elite e uma culturapopular e de massas.

! transio de um modelo cultural entendidocomo o cultivo do esprito e do carcter, ou,como definia Mattew Arnold, sweetness and

light, para o modelo de uma cultura comum.! cultura = manifestao das prticas sociais

quotidianas

!

importante no separar cultura da vida

social! enfatiza o carcter vivido, quotidiano da

cultura como todo um modo de vida


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Definio de cultura

Distingue trs categoriasgerais

1.

ideal = cultura umestado ou processo de

perfeio humana2.

documental = produtosliterrios e artsticosconcebidos como registosmateriais e histricos

3.

social = cultura comomodo particular de vidaou modos de voda dediferentes grupos sociaisou econmicos

Williams conclui que nenhuma das categoriasseparadamente aceitvel, sendo necessrioconceber o processo como um todo.


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Categorias da cultura Anlise cultural

1. ideal = cultura um

estado ou processode perfeio humana

2. d o c u m e n t a l =

produtos literrios e

artsticos concebidosc o m o r e g i s t o shistricos

3. social = cultura

c o m o m o d oparticular de vida

! descrio des valoresc o n s i d e r a d o sintemporais/universais

!

d e s c r i o d et r aba lhos/obras e

prticas de actividadeintelectual

!

i d e n t i f i c a o d o s

significados e valoresexplcitos na arte, mast a m b m n a si n s t i t u i e s e n ocomportamento dos

indivduos


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! Such analysis will include historicalcriticism in which intellectual and

imaginative works are analysed in relation toparticular traditions and societies, but willalso include analysis of elements in the wayof life that to followers of the other

definitions are not culture at all: theorganization of the production, the structureof the family, the structure of institutionswhich express or govern social relationships,

the characteristic forms through whichm e m b e r s o f t h e s o c i e t ycommunicate. (57-58)


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! Williams insiste na necessidade de seconsiderar o processo cultural como um

todo, de modo a que a anlise de um texto/artefacto/ produto cultural se articule com aanlise das condies da sua produo erecepo


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[I]t seems to me that there is value in each ofthese kinds of definition. For it certainly seems

necessary to look for meanings and values, therecord of creative human activity, not only inart and intellectual work, but also ininstitutions and forms of behaviour. At the

same time, the degree to which we depend, inour knowledge of many past societies and paststages of our own, on the body of intellectualand imaginative work which has retained its

major communicative power, makes thedescription of culture in these terms, if notcomplete, at least reasonable. (58)


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1.

If we call the process, not human perfection,which implies a known ideal towards which wecan move, but human evolution, to mean aprocess of general growth of man as a kind, weare able to recognize areas of fact which the otherdefinitions might exclude. For it seems to me to

be true that meanings and values, discovered inparticular societies and by particular individuals,and kept alive by social inheritance and byembodiment in particular kinds of work, have

proved to be universal in the sense that when theyare learned they can contribute radically to thegrowth of mans powers to enrich his life, toregulate his society, and to control hisenvironment. (58-59)


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2. [A]n ideal definition which attempts toabstract the process it describes from itsdetailed embodiment and shaping by particular

societies However difficult it may be inpractice, we have to try to see the process as awhole. (59-60)

3. It was certainly an error to suppose thatvalues or art-works could be adequatelystudies without reference to the particular

society within which they were expressed, butit is equally an error to suppose that the socialexplanation is determining, or that the valuesand works are mere by-products. (61)


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4. The analysis of culture, in the documentarysense, is of great importance because it can

yield specific evidence about the wholeorganisation within which it was expressed. Wecannot say that we know a particular form orperiod of society, and that we will see how its

art and theory relate to it, for until we knowthese, we cannot really claim to know thesociety.(62)


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!

Analysis of particular works or institutions is analysis of their essential kind of organization, therelationship which works or institutions embody asparts of the organization as a whole. A key-word,in such analysis, is pattern: it is with the discovery

of patterns of a characteristic kind that any usefulcultural analysis begins, and it is with therelationship between these patterns, whichsometimes reveal unexpected identities and

correspondences in hitherto separately consideredactivities, sometimes again reveal discontinuitiesofan unexpected kind, that general cultural analysisis concerned. (63)


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!

We see most past work throgh our ownexperience, without even making an effort tosee it in something like its original terms.What analysis can do is not so much to

reverse this, returning a work to its period, asto make the interpretations conscious, byshowing historical alternatives; to relate theinterpretation to the particular contemporary

values on which it rests; and, by exploringthe real patterns of the work, confront uswith the real nature of the choices we aremaking. (69)


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Trs nveis de cultura

1. vivida = a cultura vivida num determinado

tempo e lugar apenas acessvel para quemvive nesse tempo e lugar

2. registada= registo de prticas do quotidiano;

produo artstica = cultura de um periodo3.

tradio selectiva = registo histrico de umasociedade; seleco, interpretao e rejeio dede elementos


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Palavras chave

social character = um sistema de valores adquiridoformal e informalmente

structure of feeling (estrutura de sensibilidade/

sentimento) = percepes e valores partilhados poruma determinada gerao


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! codi f icam padres e estruturas de

sensibilidade, sendo portadores das marcasdos processos que os produziram, econvidando sua interpretao

! uma forma de cultura documental, a forma

imaginativa e intelectual que regista, demodo detalhado, a experincia e opensamento humano

! permitem que o leitor se identifique com a

experincia, com os modos de pensar e comas situaes representadas por umdeterminado autor, num determinado tempoe lugar

Raymond Williams the Analysis of Culture

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