"Raymond Williams was the last of the great European male revolutionary socialist intellectuals born before the end of the age of Europe (1492-1945)."-Cornel West

The work of Raymond Williams is of seminal importance in rethinking the idea of culture. He is widely regarded as one of the founding figures of international cultural studies. In tribute to his legacy, this edited volume is devoted to his theories of cultural materialism and is the most substantial and wide-ranging collection of essays on his work to be offered since his death in 1988. For all readers grappling with Williams's complex legacy, this volume is not to be missed.Contributors include Stanley Aronowitz, Graduate School, CUNY; John Brenkman, Baruch College, CUNY; Peter de Bolla, Cambridge University; Catherine Gallagher, University of California, Berkeley; Stephen Heath, University of California, Santa Cruz; John Higgins, University of Cape Town; Peter Hitchcock, Baruch College, CUNY; Cora Kaplan, Rutgers University; David Lloyd, University of California, Berkeley; Robert Miklitsch, Ohio University; Michael Moriarty, Cambridge University; Morag Shiach, Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London; David Simpson, University of Colorado, Boulder; Gillian Skirrow; Kenneth Surin, Duke University; Paul Thomas, University of California, Berkeley; Gauri Viswanathan, Columbia University; and Cornel West, Harvard University.

A rethinking of realism that reveals its relevance to sexual and cultural politics.

Despite rumors of its demise in literary theory and practice, realism persists. Why this is, and how realism is relevant to current interdisciplinary debates in gender studies and cultural studies, are the questions underlying Spectacles of Realism. With particular reference to nineteenth-century French culture, the contributors explore the role realism has played in the social construction of gender and sexuality. Among their subjects are nineteenth-century physiologies, photographs, caricatures, and Balzac’s Comédie humaine; the ethnographic claims of Goncourt’s naturalism and the historical claims of Zola’s; and the allure of exotica displayed at new museums and international expositions.

Contributors: April Alliston, Princeton U; Emily Apter, UCLA; Charles Bernheimer, U of Pennsylvania; Rhonda Garelick; Judith Goldstein, Vassar; Anne Higonnet, Wellesley; Roger Huss, Queen Mary and Westfield College; Dorothy Kelly, Boston U; Diana Knight, U of Nottingham; Jann Matlock, Harvard U; Linda Nochlin, NYU; Patrick O’Donovan, King’s College; Vanessa Schwartz, American U; Naomi Segal, U of Reading; Barbara Vinken, NYU.