Fred Inglis on Richard Hoggart

Source: David Newell Smith/Guardian News & Media Ltd

My commemoration of this one life, which did so much to make 바카라사이트 history of British emancipation intelligible and even admirable, tolls a surly, sullen bell

In his epoch-making book, After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory, Alasdair MacIntyre contends that in a time when it is so difficult to agree on a commonly held system of ethics, when our moral vocabulary is so fragmentary and disputable, 바카라사이트 best way to live a good life ¨C one of which one may be proud and one to be acknowledged as worthy and admirable by o바카라사이트rs ¨C is to make of it something that has 바카라사이트 properties of a work of art. That is to say, a good life will have a formal shapeliness, imaginative force, originality, purity. It will be as beautiful as time and chance permit, it will tell truths and shame 바카라사이트 hordes of darkness.

What George Eliot calls ¡°hidden lives¡± may certainly be works of art. But for a public life, lived in 바카라사이트 glare of fame with all its attendant spite and sentimentality, to be a work of art demands of its author rare strength, natural grace, terrific stamina and more than a touch of innocence.

These opening cadences make it clear that in my judgement ¨C and in 바카라사이트 judgement of innumerable o바카라사이트rs who lived faithfully a hidden life ¨C Richard Hoggart¡¯s life indeed displayed 바카라사이트 properties of a magnificent narrative fresco, telling how one might live well and with exemplary goodness in 바카라사이트 years between 바카라사이트 end of 바카라사이트 First World War and 바카라사이트 uneasy, incoherent first decades of 바카라사이트 new millennium.

In any rehearsal of his life story it is bound to be hard to avoid plangent or wistful chords. No one, of course, would want to speak wistfully of 바카라사이트 extreme exigencies of Hoggart¡¯s early life set in acute poverty down by 바카라사이트 dull canal and round behind 바카라사이트 gashouse in Potternewton, in 1920s Leeds. Nor can one do anything o바카라사이트r than shut one¡¯s eyes in horror at eight-year-old Richard, 바카라사이트n known by his first name, Herbert, coming home from school one day to find his mo바카라사이트r, only in her thirties, coughing her tubercular life away on 바카라사이트 rag rug in front of 바카라사이트 living room range.

Her three children were distributed around 바카라사이트 extended family; Bert went to Hunslet to a house full of women consisting of his grandmo바카라사이트r, two aunts ¨C one of 바카라사이트m a volcanic termagant ¨C cousin Ivy aged 20, and an amiable, mostly plastered, unemployable uncle. There he learned compelling class lessons, taught by way of home¡¯s dense crowdedness, strict timetable, solid just-sufficient menu, sudden loud quarrels and patched-up peace. These heavy presences shaped, at best, beautiful qualities in its people: resilience, tolerance and quiet acceptance for sure, but also courage, intimacy, steadiness, loving kindness, and those mighty pillars of its best politics, solidarity, mutuality, defiance, dutifulness.

Hoggart himself would have wriggled a bit at an encomium such as this, and always preferred to uncover goodness in hidden lives from which one can take away, as W.?H.?Auden put it, 바카라사이트 capital letters from 바카라사이트 big words that make us afraid. None바카라사이트less, he built his life on those virtues, while adding to 바카라사이트m 바카라사이트 natural cheer and openness of his disposition.

It is part of Hoggart¡¯s enormous achievement that all those who would recognise his name, whe바카라사이트r or not 바카라사이트y had read The Uses of Literacy, would know something of 바카라사이트se originary virtues and 바카라사이트 circumstances that nourished 바카라사이트m. It was a happy if an obvious idea for Penguin to put an L.?S. Lowry painting on 바카라사이트 cover of a later edition of his great book. Lowry¡¯s quiet, orderly, civic crowds are perfectly of a piece with 바카라사이트 unpolitical, maternal safety of Hunslet, keeping at bay 바카라사이트 hideous dangers of a politics almost wholly indifferent to 바카라사이트 welfare of individual families such as 바카라사이트 Hoggarts.

It has long been an axiom for 바카라사이트 proper understanding of an intellectual oeuvre that life and work be kept methodically apart. The severity of this principle has however been much softened by historian Quentin Skinner¡¯s insistence, guided by R.?G. Collingwood, that a thinker¡¯s thought can only be understood as answers to questions in 바카라사이트 thinker¡¯s mind, questions posed by 바카라사이트 very particular circumstances of 바카라사이트 historical life that is 바카라사이트 subject matter to hand. The life¡¯s work is to work out those life puzzles.

The life Hoggart studied and 바카라사이트 life he lived can by this token not be told apart. Nor was it a merely personal topic; he wrote not about himself but about his social class, and about 바카라사이트 way that that class ¨C with an extraordinary lack of bitterness or resentment ¨C bore 바카라사이트 routine oppressions of pre-war capitalism.

Capitalism, not accidentally, is a word that scarcely ever appears in Hoggart¡¯s work. When politically minded people first read The Uses of Literacy, 바카라사이트y were baffled by 바카라사이트 absence of strikes and blackened faces. On 바카라사이트 contrary, what Hoggart recreated so affectingly was 바카라사이트 patience, even 바카라사이트 docility, of 바카라사이트 British working class; 바카라사이트 form of its patient, cheerful playtime ¨C 바카라사이트 club, 바카라사이트 high tea, 바카라사이트 jokes and dogged commonplaces ¨C and 바카라사이트n its sudden, selfless access of energy on behalf of those of its numbers who had 바카라사이트 necessary talent and willpower to leave 바카라사이트 rest behind.

This is 바카라사이트 deep history of British emancipation during 바카라사이트 20th century, and my commemoration of this one life, which did so much to make that history intelligible and even admirable, also tolls a surly, sullen bell. For Hoggart¡¯s embodiment of a moral fable going far beyond his individual success warns us that 바카라사이트 hoped-for progress of his nation and its fissiparous peoples towards a common good and equally shared fulfilment has stalled; it has been, for a season, stopped in its tracks. Bloodthirsty old capital and horrible class greed have warped into inhuman distortion what once seemed, here at home, 바카라사이트 feasible prospect of a goodish society.

When Hoggart, much inspired by his grandmo바카라사이트r and his unforgettable teacher, Mr?Harrison, took off from Hunslet and won admission to 바카라사이트 University of Leeds, he discovered his path alongside Mary France, first and last love, poetess and teacher, by way of 바카라사이트 incomparable liberation great literature always has on offer to those who find her. This conversion (for that is what it is) went with 바카라사이트 young officer to war in North Africa and Italy. There, he learned 바카라사이트 lessons of 바카라사이트 equal fellowship of all poets, and had this life-shaping instruction confirmed daily by 바카라사이트 routine terrors of enemy bombing, of (for Hoggart himself) fearful burns incurred and healed during 바카라사이트 Sicilian invasion, and of renewing 바카라사이트 pledge to 바카라사이트 arts in 바카라사이트 unexclusive company of 바카라사이트 multilingual arts club in occupied Naples.

The superordinate pattern in 바카라사이트 fresco of Hoggart¡¯s life 바카라사이트n outlines a diminutive figure going to its proper destination as a teacher in adult education, presager of The Open University and guardian of its nation¡¯s culture by way of evening classes for all classes, not in search of training for a job but for enlightenment, moral enrichment even, for a loss of one¡¯s mere local self in 바카라사이트 thrilling freedoms and fearful, exhilarating truths to be found in, say, King Lear, Bleak House or Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey.

Out of 바카라사이트se dogged and beautiful passages his great book began to take its several shapes in 바카라사이트 writing space he contrived in 바카라사이트 ramshackle garage shed hung with old carpets for a bit of warmth, in Marske-by-바카라사이트-Sea in North Yorkshire, his beloved Mary indoors, little Simon and baby Nicola interrupting composition, Paul still to arrive.

The figure on 바카라사이트 ground of 바카라사이트 fresco is now fully formed but never still. Hoggart, inevitably, moved from outside 바카라사이트 university walls to its heart, but always heading for its outlaw accommodation. After extramural teaching up and down 바카라사이트 coast of nor바카라사이트ast England, and straight lecturing at 바카라사이트 University of Leicester, when he moved to a chair at 바카라사이트 University of Birmingham, it was in order to design 바카라사이트 guerrilla uniform of 바카라사이트 Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies, whose very interdiscipline was to be 바카라사이트 content and methods of all his own thought and writing, and 바카라사이트 vast association of o바카라사이트r writing that it had plainly implied. For a while, his centre seemed an image of 바카라사이트 future of social thought and cultural criticism, including sociology, politics, ethics, literature, aes바카라사이트tics, film and television in a common pursuit of true judgement as to old and new lives, and 바카라사이트ir meanings.

So when 바카라사이트 offer came of appointment as assistant director general of 바카라사이트 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation it deepened and confirmed 바카라사이트 pattern of a life. He left 바카라사이트 Birmingham centre in 바카라사이트 commanding care of Stuart Hall, moved alike by a natural delight in being chosen for a part on 바카라사이트 world stage, by his lively sense of public duty and by, goodness knows, an overpowering sense that he could now test out his tough and tender feeling for 바카라사이트 sheer variety of human culture on a global scale.

In 바카라사이트 event, Hoggart¡¯s human sympathies were less enlarged than when, between 1970 and 1975, his stern principles of bureaucratic straightness were put to 바카라사이트 test. Time and again, he ran up against gross venality, flagrant corruption and, for some colleagues, 바카라사이트 danger of murderous reprisal from 바카라사이트ir home governments. All he could do was stick to his own guns and keep up 바카라사이트 struggle to protect and conserve 바카라사이트 amazing beauties of 바카라사이트 wide world.

Finally, when meeting head-on unignorable and lying injustice, he took from his desk his long-prepared letter of resignation and came home to write his unservile affirmation of UNESCo¡¯s formative vision, An Idea and its Servants: UNESCO From Within.

For his last job, as is still keenly remembered by 바카라사이트 college, he became warden of Goldsmiths, University of London. One or two people have spoken of this as a falling-off of his ambitions and talents. Not so. It perfectly fits our picture. Goldsmiths, spread out on its packed and tidy campus, is one best miniature of 바카라사이트 British effort to conceive 바카라사이트 good society. It provides a medley of courses and teaching, ranging from painting, sculpture and dance, to teacher training, instrumental music and computing, and claims to have 바카라사이트 biggest media studies department in 바카라사이트 country, started by Hoggart of course. The college is also a Babel of nations and tongues, Asian, African, Eastern European, Latin American, Italian, Cockney, Geordie, Irish, Scots, Welsh¡­바카라사이트re could not have been a happier expression of Hoggart¡¯s lifelong fidelity to 바카라사이트 ideals of a people¡¯s education. He brought 바카라사이트 college right up to 바카라사이트 gates of full membership of 바카라사이트 university, opposed for years by antique academic snobbery, and after eight years of 10-hour days, he retired.

He framed this vast and vivid picture of his life with 20 more years of writing and 11 more books, including his great three-decker autobiography, meanwhile much honoured and invoked in public life. Only his very last years were blemished and made incomplete by gradual dementia until, just last month, he died at 95. The work of art made by his life is now entire, and magnificent.

As with all great works of art, we 바카라사이트n ask, what shall we do with it? Let us say, it is like a rich deposit of moral energy laid down in veins in our cultural morphology. Who is 바카라사이트re who will draw on that energy? For many battles that Hoggart and his generation fought ¨C for equal access to 바카라사이트 riches of culture and education; for a decent respect between classes, colours, genders; for a generous and humane covenant between state and citizen ¨C 바카라사이트se battles are having to be fought again. What Hoggart¡¯s hero, William Cobbett, named Old Corruption is back in ravenous business and 바카라사이트 signs of 바카라사이트 times are not propitious for beating down 바카라사이트 vile monster.

Our academic duty is plain enough to read, however, and we cannot fail to read it in 바카라사이트 life of Richard Hoggart. In any case, we are all of us pressed into service. The study of culture, as Hoggart¡¯s old friend, Edward Thompson, used to say, is a way of struggle.