Hoggart and women

Sue Owen

pp. 227-242

in: Sue Owen (ed), Richard Hoggart and cultural studies, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2008

Abstract

I mentioned in the introduction to this volume that the time for a re-evaluation of Hoggart was exactly right. There may be two reasons for this. First, there is a need to return to the idea of class, and to the working class in particular, when other categories such as race, gender and sexual orientation have been prioritized within cultural studies.¹ Secondly, it may be time for an informed re-evaluation of "totalizing" theories of working-class culture. We are finding a new value in Hoggart's humane approach to the study of the working-class and popular culture, his refusal to oversimplify and his resistance of totalizing judgements about "the masses". The rehabilitation of Hoggart represents a shift in theoretical thinking. Discomfort with recent trends in theory, as applied to the working class, may be countered by reasserting Hoggart's focus on the humanity, variety and specificity of working-class people, and the "quiddity" of working-class life and culture.