Cultural Studies  Postmodern Theories and Text

Representation

Related Issues
in Post-structuralism
General Issues  


 
Further Readings:  Barthes and Foucault(outlines by Allison Lin)
Barthes's Semiotics

Foucault

Relevant Links
The Treachery of Images, by Rene Magritte, 1928/29
under construction 9/30/2001
Representation: Related Issues
Representation
History and Myth
Barthes' idea of Myth in the second order of signification
History as emplotment (Hayden White)
Society--
ideology --representation the imaginary relationship one has with society
Foucault's ideas of  discourse and discursive apparatus
Subjectivity and Body (the Represented, or Viewing Subjects)
Lacan's Mirror Stage, Splitting of the Subject


 Representation: General Issues

  1. Representation: the production of meanings out of the material world through some conceptual frameworks and languages. 
  2. Where do meanings lie or happen?  In the outside world, in the producer's mind, or in lanaguage?  three approaches
  3. What are the two systems of representation for Hall? 
  4. What approaches does Cultural Studies take to the issues of representation?

  Unless otherwise noted, the following information is excerpted from
"The Work of Representation."
Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices.  Ed. Stuart Hall.  London: Sage, 1997.

  Representation two systems of representation; representation/language and culture:
 
         /
programme as 
meaningful discourse
 
      /
/
encoding
meaning sturctures 1
 
\
decoding
meaning structure 2
/
frameworks of 
knowledge
.............................
 
 
 
 \
frameworks of 
knowledge
............................
relations of production
............................
 
 
 
relations of production
............................
technical infrastructure
 
 
 
technical infrastructure
 
'"meaning structure 1" and "meaning structure 2" may not be the same.  ...The codes of encoding and deconding may not be perfectly the symmetrical.  The degrees of symmetry--that is, the degrees of 'understanding' and 'misunderstanding' in the communicative exchange--depend on the degrees of symmetry/asymmetry established  between the positions of the ...encoder-producer and decoder-receiver.'  (S. Hall "encoding, decoding" )


Relevant Links: