Scan barcode
yuefei's review against another edition
3.0
Wasn't very interested in a lot of the content about the history of drama/theatre and cultural studies, and Williams' antiquated writing style can be a bit painful to read, but there were some highlights that I'd like to return to, especially "Afterword to Modern Tragedy" and "Culture and Technology."
This collection of writings are very much situated within and responding to a specific historical situation, which I am unfamiliar with, but I can't help but feel like Williams is strawmanning "poststructuralism." I think he and Barthes has a lot more in common than he might expect (what Barthes wrote in Mythologies, that "a little formalism turns one away from History, but that a lot brings one back to it," resonates deeply with one of Williams' main points here). For me the most valuable takeaway is the idea that "culture" and "society" aren't so much polarities as they are interrelated forms, the various manifestations of human activity, and that their relationships (between "form" and "formation"), their symbiosis, is the centre of a historically specific analysis from which a politics of cultural forms can sprout.
This collection of writings are very much situated within and responding to a specific historical situation, which I am unfamiliar with, but I can't help but feel like Williams is strawmanning "poststructuralism." I think he and Barthes has a lot more in common than he might expect (what Barthes wrote in Mythologies, that "a little formalism turns one away from History, but that a lot brings one back to it," resonates deeply with one of Williams' main points here). For me the most valuable takeaway is the idea that "culture" and "society" aren't so much polarities as they are interrelated forms, the various manifestations of human activity, and that their relationships (between "form" and "formation"), their symbiosis, is the centre of a historically specific analysis from which a politics of cultural forms can sprout.
alexlanz's review against another edition
He really comes alive when talking about the theater.
More...