Hoggart, Richard

Abstract

Richard Hoggart's book The Uses of Literacy (1957) pioneered the study of working-class life and culture. Hoggart founded the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies at the University of Birmingham in 1964, giving rise to a variety of research by others on such themes as youth subcultures and television soap opera. Hoggart's own intellectual style remained closer to an older English literary criticism, and his relevance to cultural studies seemed outdated by the 1970s. However, his writing, and contribution to public office, were tempered by a humanism that has come back into vogue with the declining interest in postmodernism. His scholarship is thus experiencing a renewed appreciation.