Marxism and Literature (review)

127 REVIEWS Humanity and Society (Indiana University Press, 1973), a book converging on the pages here when it considers the so-caUed "transition" from slavery to feudalism on the basis of information not available to Marx and Engels. There are tough and fine statements here on the relation of the economic to the social, on the relation (or nonrelation ) of class struggle to human thought and the arts, on why history has not exactly worked out as Marx predicted. One major emphasis of several speakers in the dialogue, which seems to have Cameron's own aUegiance, is the several-times-repeated statement that though Marx was massively right nonetheless on some points he was "thinking too exclusively in economic terms, forgetting the total historical complex." The reader must test to what degree this is, as Cameron says, not a revision but a plausible modern development of Marxist thought. Kenneth Neill Cameron is the person who returned to us the social SheUey: the SheUey who in many respects anticipated Marx. An impeccable textual scholar and editor, he has also made immense contributions to the biography of SheUey and his circle. Donald H. Reiman has told the whole story of Cameron's productive career in a detaUed, affectionate profile in The Wordsworth Circle (VIII, 3, Summer 1977). Here I need only notice the way this career has entered a new phase which, in Humanity and Society and Marx and Engels Today, makes yet more explicit the social concerns which were always present, rising to a new level of intensity and looking for new audiences. The example of this recent work of an emeritus professor raises questions on which I will end this brief review. For what and for whom is scholarship performed? In the national Ufe in any given generation, how many scholars may be said to count? Old questions admittedly; what is new is that the reminder of their centrality should come from just this book by just this man. Donald Wesüng Raymond Williams, Marxism and Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977. 217pp. $10.00 $2.95 (paper). In Marxism and Literature Raymond Williams explores the crucial social and cultural problems of our time. The scope is vast, the analysis penetrating, and the ideas are exciting. Each chapter could easUy be expanded into a comprehensive book. Unfortunately , Wüüams' prose is dense and turgid. It seems to repeat some of the mechanistic, and Unear habits of the thought he means to attack. There are three sections, "Basic Concepts," "Cultural Theory," and "Literary Theory." I found the first two the most helpful. Williams traces the origin and changes of words and terms-culture, language, literature, ideology, determination, individual-locates them in specific historical contexts and offers us complex working definitions. "The range and ambiguity of a concept, far from being an invitation to mere Usting, or an eclectic tolerance, constitutes the key to its significance," Williams writes. He shows us that "individual" "once meant indivisible, a member of a group" but was "developed to become not only a separate but an opposing term," that "determine " is "never only the setting of limits; it is also the exertion of pressures." These are useful definitions that enable us to revise our ways of thinking. Marxism and Literature doesn't answer aU the questions, and doesn't pretend to. For example, Williams acknowledges the basic disagreements that exist within Marxist ranks about such "key" concepts as "ideology." He doesn't settle the issues surrounding the term "ideology," but by discussing the conflicting theories he takes us a step toward their resolution. Despite serious flaws, Williams's achievement is remarkable. He develops a sophis- 128 THE MINNESOTA REVIEW ticated social and cultural materiaüst theory, overturns philosophical ideaUsm, and reveals the basic error in mechanical materialism. In addition, he dissects linear, static interpretations of culture and society, and in their place formulates a dialectical approach . To understand Marxism, to understand Uterature, we ought to understand history, economics, language, ideology, aesthetics, revolution, and creative work, Williams insists . And not only understand inteUectuaUy, but be actively involved in struggle to change and create. In Williams's hands theory and practice are inseparable. "Many positions can be tolerated...