Richard Hoggart and Working Class Cultural Identity

Richard Hoggart: The Father of Culturalism

Richard Hoggart followed culturalism, a current of thought that uses culture to analyze history and society. Growing up in a working-class family in Leeds amidst privations, he became the founder of the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies. He was an avid writer whose seminal book, ‘The Uses of Literacy’, remains a primary focus in the field.

The Significance of The Uses of Literacy

The book’s most significant achievement was demonstrating an interconnection between public values and private practice. This is exemplified by everyday activities such as men frequenting pubs or working clubs, as well as the nuances of family roles and gender relations.

Hoggart vs. the High Culture Gladiators

While previous scholars, often referred to as the "high culture gladiators," viewed individuals in isolation, Hoggart shifted the focus toward the working class as a collective group. This transition allows for a deeper comparison and contrast of their respective views.

Distinctive Approaches to Working Class Life

Hoggart set himself apart by focusing on the working class as a group with a distinct identity, detailing their everyday events and habits. By emphasizing his personal experience, he provided an insider’s view that offered a sense of authenticity. Unlike the Leavisite approach, Hoggart did not disapprove of popular culture as a whole; he believed people could selectively engage with it. His cultural analysis was not dominated by a view of culture as purely exemplary or canonical work.

Conversely, he challenged the simplistic versions of working-class culture offered by the gladiators. Drawing on personal knowledge, he defined the working class by how they functioned from the inside.

Shared Perspectives on Cultural Decline

Despite their differences, both parties linked cultural forms to historical change and mass industrial culture. They both operated with the notion of cultural decline. However, while the high culture gladiators held a biased and elitist view, Hoggart’s division of common culture was more nuanced. Both Hoggart and Leavis utilized two-category systems:

• Leavis: Distinguished between ‘traditional organic culture’ and ‘mass consumer culture.’
• Hoggart: Contrasted the culture of his youth with ‘1950s popular culture,’ which he felt illustrated alienation and skepticism.

Active Resistance and Critical Education

Hoggart rejected the idea of the traditional working class as mere passive victims of mass culture. He held that they possess a strong natural ability to survive change by adapting and ignoring what they do not want. This concept of resistance is similar to the Leavisite view, which linked resistance to discrimination.

In short, both parties considered education in discrimination as a means to resist mass culture manipulation. Hoggart’s concept of active working-class resistance shares significant similarities with Leavisite concepts of critical awareness, close reading, and resistance.