Keywords as method. (August 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Moran, Marie
• Is Part Of: European journal of cultural studies. Volume 24:Number 4(2021)
• Page Start: 1021
• Page End: 1029
• Publication Date: 2021-08
• Subjects: Cultural Marxism -- cultural materialism -- identity -- keywords -- practice -- Raymond Williams; Culture -- Periodicals; Culture -- Popular -- Periodicals; Culture -- Study and teaching -- Periodicals; Cross-cultural studies -- Periodicals; 306.05
• DOI: 10.1177/13675494211016858
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1367-5494

Abstract

This short essay seeks to restore the keywords approach initiated by Williams to a more central place within the cultural materialist paradigm he also developed. Combining Williams' cultural materialist account of language with the practical orientation of Keywords, it sketches a way of developing the keywords approach as a method of sociocultural analysis. Drawing on some practical examples, it offers 'keywords-as-method' as a means of carrying out a historicist and materialist study of the relationship of linguistic to social change, that goes beyond the simple glossary of terms approach that has thus far limited the explanatory and critical potential of Keywords. In so doing, I hope to contribute to the renewal of Williamsian scholarship that has coincided with the centenary of his birth.