Social production of writing

Abstract

A collection of sixteen texts of essays and lectures covering three of the four decades of the author's career, The Social Production of Writing (1984) precisely illustrates what Raymond Williams' work is. What ties together the texts grouped here is the effort that runs through his entire work to overcome the divisions between university departments, in order to compose an approach capable of articulating literary criticism, sociology, history and politics. This volume offers the reader a compelling record of how Williams engaged in this task. The starting point is the redefinition of the idea of ​​writing. Going against the trends – as Williams points out, dominant both in criticism and in common sense –, which naturalize writing, taking it as a direct and autonomous process, or as a mere matter of style (associating the qualities of writing with the properties and capabilities of the one who writes), Williams seeks to retain writing as an activity with a historical and social dimension.