Raymond Williams and the Performativity of the ‘Common Dialectic’
New Formations - Print ISSN 0950-2378 - Online ISSN 1741-0789
Volume 2025 Number 115
Raymond Williams and the Performativity of the ‘Common Dialectic’
Harald Pittel pages 76‑91
DOI: 10.3898/NEWF:115.04.2025
Abstract
This essay argues that present-day discussions about the commons can gain from Raymond Williams’ thought. Specifically, Williams envisioned a dialectical relation between ‘common culture’ (as an open and participatory process) and ‘culture in common’ (cultural forms in which the process imperfectly crystallises and from which it restarts). I argue that this way of theorising the commons – which I suggest calling Williams’ ‘common dialectic’ – is consistent in his work. A case in point is Williams’ view of working-class writing transforming established forms of literature (a cultural possession held ‘in common’) in a creative process that is inherently ‘common’, open and democratic. Even though the later Williams tended to dismiss the terms constituting his ‘common dialectic’, it can be argued that this way of thinking shifted to an implicit and performative mode and kept informing his commitment as a public intellectual.
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To cite this article
Harald Pittel (2025) Raymond Williams and the Performativity of the ‘Common Dialectic’, New Formations, 2025(115), 76-91 . https://doi.org/10.3898/NEWF:115.04.2025