Keywords - A Vocabulary of Culture and Society (Paperback, New Ed)

Not a dictionary, not an etymology, not a guide to contemporary usage, this unusual study of the social and linguistic origins of "keywords" evolved, belatedly, from Williams' seminal interdisciplinary Culture and Society (1956). Williams argues that the nexus of meanings of Art, Industry, Materialism, Civilization, Community, Nature, Alienation, et al., carries within it latent ways of seeing, i.e., political, professional, or class values. Vocabulary is neither fixed nor neutral; barley or barn may be simple and exact terms, but words which involve abstractions or ideas are inescapably colored by ideology. Culture itself is perhaps the most key keyword of all and Williams painstakingly traces its intricate historical metamorphosis from husbandry to human development to social organization, citing shifts of meaning from Milton to Herder to contemporary anthropology. He differentiates his brand of historical semantics from objective idealism or the currently voguish non-historical (synchronic) structuralism. His little essays take off from Latin and Greek roots, various intellectual or academic disciplines, or literary and scientific coinages. He aims not at resolution of semantic ambiguities but at "that extra edge of consciousness." In his exploration of language, Williams gets at dynamics and nuances generally encountered only in free-wheeling compilations of slang. (Kirkus Reviews)

Raymond Williams' seminal exploration of the history of meaning of some of the most important words in the English language. First published in 1976, and expanded in 1983, KEYWORDS reveals how the meanings of 131 words - including 'art', 'class', 'family', 'media', 'sex' and 'tradition' - were formed and subsequently altered and redefined as the historical contexts in which they were used changed. Neither a defining dictionary or glossary, KEYWORDS is rather a brilliant investigation into how the meanings of some of the most important words in the English language have shifted over time, and the forces that brought about those shifts.

General

Imprint:	Fourth Estate
Country of origin:	United Kingdom
Release date:	February 1988
Authors:	Raymond Williams
Dimensions:	198 x 130 x 22mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Paperback - B-format
Pages:	341
Edition:	New Ed
ISBN-13:	978-0-00-686150-8
Categories:	Books > Language & Literature > Language & linguistics > Sociolinguistics Books > Reference & Interdisciplinary > Communication studies > Media studies
LSN:	0-00-686150-4
Barcode:	9780006861508

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