Cul_representation

Cultural Studies
Postmodern Theories and Text

Related Issues in Post-structuralism

Barthes and Foucault (outlines by Allison Lin)

Barthes's Semiotics

Foucault

Relevant Links

Representation

The Treachery of Images, by Rene Magritte, 1928/29

under construction 11/28/1998

background adapted from Paul Klee

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 Lacan's Mirror Stage, Splitting of the Subject

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

Representation: the production and circulation of meaning through "language" as a system of representation.
Three approaches to language: the reflective, the intentional, the constuctionist. The following belong to the constructionist approach--
Two approaches to representation: the semiotic and discursive approaches

"the semiotic approach is concerned with the how of representation, with how language produces meaning-- ...poetics; the discursive approach is more concerned with the effects and consequences of representation--politics." (6)

Relation between representation/language and culture--shared meaning:

"cultural codes"--"Member of the same culture must share sets of concepts, images and ideas which enable them to think and feel about the world, and thus to interpret the world, in roughly the same way." (Hall Representation 4)
two systems of representation: 1. a mental system, a conceptual map, 2. a system of signs

Semiotics

three kinds of signs: icon, index, symbol
encoding and decoding in popular culture:

	/	programme as meaningful discourse	\
/	/ encoding meaning sturctures 1		\ encoding 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:

Please visit the semiotics section in lit. crit. databank for

Saussure's langue and parole; signifier and signified binary opposition;
Roland Barthes Theories
a summary of "Myth Today";
a general introduction to Barthes' Mythologies.

Semiotic concepts defined and illustrated simple, vivid introduction. (No theoretical basis or authority is quoted for any of the examples although they are presented with almost dogmatic certainty. In fact, some of the examples [such as the explanation of indexical signs] are highly debatable.

Semiotics--Relevant links