Abstract
On the ephemeral birth centenary of the Welsh critic Raymond Williams, there were many celebrations of his intellectual legacy. Here I propose to trace an itinerary of remembrance, that is, besides punctuating aspects of Williams’ trajectory, I compile the characteristics of his work evoked throughout the commemorations, locate them geographically, and make some considerations about their arrangements. Working with the conceptions of field and biographical illusion, elaborated by Pierre Bourdieu, I draw attention to the specific qualities of the writer/intellectual’s “narrative of self” and their impact on the examination of trajectories and ideas undertaken by their scholars. Based on that, I join the solemnities and select the facets of Raymond Williams that I would like to remember. Finally, I argue that the recognition of these layers of meaning in no way diminishes the capacity of producing knowledge and that these are, in fact, constituent complexifications of social analysis.
Keywords:
Raymond Williams; Intellectual history; Marxism; Circulation of ideas; Cultural materialism