Abstract

This article explores the period during which Raymond Williams was writing Culture and Society, The Long Revolution, and Border Country. It examines Williams’s efforts to establish and articulate his unique oppositional stance as a writer. Williams challenged the prevailing notion of the rebel as an exile and outsider, a concept influenced by the post-war era and existentialist thought, which he ultimately deemed insufficient and superficial. The article also considers two contemporaries of Williams: Iris Murdoch, who critiques existentialism from a philosophical standpoint, and Emyr Humphreys, whose early novel The Voice of a Stranger represents a Welsh interpretation of the post-war moral return. The study traces Williams's development of his oppositional position in relation to these writers by analyzing recurring themes in his work, particularly 'settlement' and 'community'. These themes reveal tensions between Williams's Marxist views and his strong ties to his working-class roots, as well as his evolving critique of Soviet Communism which came to characterise the emergent New Left.

Keywords: Keywords: Raymond Williams, existentialism, exile, outsider, community, settlement, Iris Murdoch, Emyr Humphreys, New Left

How to Cite:

Thomas, N., (2026) “The Exile as Anti-hero: taking the measure of Raymond Williams in the 1950s”, International Journal of Welsh Writing in English 13(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.16922/ijwwe.13.1.2