Includes bibliographical references (pages 213-217) and index

Culture -- Language -- Literature -- Ideology -- Base and superstructure -- Determination -- Productive forces -- From reflection to mediation -- Typification and homology -- Hegemony -- Traditions, institutions, and formations -- Dominant, residual, and emergent -- Structures of feeling -- The sociology of culture -- The multiplicity of writing -- Aesthetic and other situations -- From medium to social practice -- Signs and notations -- Conventions -- Genres -- Forms -- Authors -- Alignment and commitment -- Creative practice

In this book, the author analyzes previous contributions to a Marxist theory of literature from Marx himself to Lukacs, Althusser, and Goldmann, and develops his own approach by outlining a theory of 'cultural materialism' which integrates Marxist theories of language with Marxist theories of literature

This book extends the theme of Raymond Williams's earlier work in literary and cultural analysis. He analyses previous contributions to a Marxist theory of literature from Marx himself to Lukacs, Althusser, and Goldmann, and develops his own approach by outlining a theory of 'cultural materialism' which integrates Marxist theories of language with Marxist theories of literature. Williams moves from a review of the growth of the concepts of literature and idealogy to a redefinition of 'determinism' and 'hegemony'. His incisive discussion of the 'social material process' of cultural activity culminates in a re-examination of the problems of alignment and commitment and of the creative practice in individual authors and wider social groups