Chapter 2: Representation and Semiotics

How does Cultural Studies study meaning?

• Representation in Cultural Studies is based on signs

• Cultural Studies studies shared meanings, and we need to understand how these meanings come into existence and are shared - representation is both the question and answer

• Hall: meaning is not determined by the things in the world and merely reflected by representations → meaning is constructed

• Constructions have real effects

  • Meaning is not a natural, but a cultural phenomenon (that is constructed)

  • This goes for other phenomena that we might take for granted as well (examples: gender, sexuality, race)

Two systems of representation (by Hall)

• “Mental representations” (called by Hall) - they are concepts in our heads and correspond to the objects, events, people and animals in the real world (in linguistics: called referents)

  • But we also have mental representation / concepts od abstract entities (like emotions, religious ideas or even fictional characters)

• “Linguistic representation” - Concepts are being represented in pictures, signs, words

• Those concepts influence each other and are connected to another → Hall: “a system of representation” and a “conceptual map”

What are signs?

• To communicate the ideas we need language. Or rather languages, because we use spoken words, written words and images to express our thoughts. All of those are signs.

• ““These signs stand for or represent the concepts and the conceptual relations between them which we carry around in our heads and together they make up the meaning-systems of our culture.” (Hall)

• Signs are arranged in clusters and classes.

• Signs are words (even different kinds of words like nouns, adjectives, etc) and also images.

The 3 kinds of signs

• Iconic signs = images (drawn, photographed, or filmed)

  • They resemble what they represent

  • This similarity might make us forget, that we are dealing with signs, because we have immediate access to the referent

  • Reminders like different conventions of representation (due to time, expl: painting from the middle ages) that make us remember they are signs.

• Indexical signs = signs that are connected to the referents that they represent in a cause-effect relationship

  • Expl: smoke is an indexical sign for fire, as fire causes smoke; footprints that Robinson Cruso finds in the Sand is an indexical sign for other people/ him not being alone anymore

• Symbolic signs = written and spoken words 

  • They do not resemble the referent (other words in other language)

  • How do people know the meaning of symbolic signs? Through code.

What is Code and what does it do?

• “sets up the correlation between our conceptual system and our language system in such a way that, every time we think of a [pig], the code tells us to use the English word [pig]”

• Relation between word and concept is completely arbitrary (dt. willkürlich, beliebig)

• Code ties the system of mental representations, the concepts, to the different systems of signs (spoken languages, written languages, and different forms of images).

• We do not remember this contract to be made up

What does “Culture as shared meanings” mean?

• “One way of thinking about ‘culture’, then, is in terms of these shared conceptual maps, shared language systems and the codes which govern the relationships of translation between them. Codes fix the relationships between concepts and signs. They stabilise meanings within different languages and cultures

• → being part of culture or at least understanding that culture means to know that cultures conceptual map

The 2 wrong theories about/ approaches to representation

• Intentional approach:

  • Words mean what the person who uses them, wants them to mean

  • Wrong → communication would be impossible

  • There is no private language (Ludwig Wittgenstein), language is by definition a social phenomenon because it is all about sharing meanings

• Reflective approach:

  • We understand the meaning of words, because words reflect/copy “some of the qualities of the referent it represents” - like imitating the object they stand for

  • Wrong → (symbolic signs) different words in different languages for the same object

  • Not even the copying of somebodys sounds makes sense (see different noises of animals in different languages)

  • it is an essententialist theory

    • It claims that the meaning of things, people, and events somehow reside inside of them and is merely reflected by language

    • Expl for this theory is gender being defined by genitals, genes and chromosomes

    • Cultural Studies is very critical about essentialist approaches

The correct theory about / approach to representation

• Meaning is neither inherent nor determined by the users of language

• Meaning comes from the system of representation, it is created by it

• The world without meaning does exist, but meaning is constructed

• But has very real effects (see example of race)

• → representation = the “production of meaning through language”

• Constructionism

  • Very important concept of Cultural Studies, foundation of the field

  • Gender, race, memory, and evebn truth are constructed

  • This is kind of a counterintuitive idea but it liberates us from the idea that there is one natural way in which we have to behave

  • Example of a traffic light; colors and their meaning

What makes the constructional approach appear to be counter-intuitive?

• Naturalization

  • A very common cultural process

  • The construction of the meaning is being forgotten / naturalised

  • The meaning seems natural

The 2 key factors that make representation work

• Difference

  • In the example of traffic lights, other colours could be used for red and green

  • “This is because what signifies is not the colours themselves but (a) the fact that they are different and can be distinguished from one another; and (b) the fact that they are organized into a particular sequence” 

  • The difference itself is what signifies

  • Often seen as binary opposition

• Combination

  • Meaning is determined not only by their link to a mental concept (fixed by the code) or them being different from each other; and the relationship of a specific sign to the signs used in combination with it

  • → “Meaning is relational” (Hall)

How does representation work? - The conceptual and material side

• Terminology of linguist Ferdinand de Saussure

• These two systems cannot be separated from each other

• Material side (Hall: sign) evokes the idea (concept); and the other way around

• Sign (Saussure) contains both the material side and the conceptual side

  • Material side: written and spoken words, images → signifier

  • Conceptual side: the idea or concept that is referred to → signified

• They are interlinked and can’t exist separately → definition of sign is bigger for Saussure than for Hall

  • Sign = entity that comprises signifier and signified

• Selection (based on difference) and combination - produce meaning 

  • Signs are therefore selected from a system of signs ans combined with other signs to produce a specific meaning

How does representation work? - Paradigms and syntagms

• Signs are organized into 

  • paradigms - according to sound, spelling, grammatical class, word family, meaning, and so on

    • While writing / speaking people selects items from paradigms (article, noun, verb) and combine them to sytagms

  • sytnagms - phrases or sentences like “The pig snorts.”

• This distinction between paradigmatic and systematic relationship is helpful

The implications of the Constructionalist Approach (1)

• No meaning without representation

  • External reality exists independently of representation, but doesn’t mean anything without it

  • Meaning through language

  • Representation links us to the world, enabling us to make sense of it, communicate about it and also seperate us from the world

  • “The world is constructed in our minds”

The implications of the Constructionalist Approach (2)

• Linguistic determinism and linguistic relativism

  • Language determines how we perceive and understand the world 

  • Wittgenstein: “The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.”

  • This is called 

    • linguistic determinsm, because language is the thing that determines our perception of the world.

    • linguistic relativism, because our perception of the world is never absolute and only ever relative, depending on the language that mediates our perception 

  • It becomes very obvious comparing (languages of) western and non-western cultures.

  • → different languages sometimes perceive physical reality differently

  • Languages are ever-changing, the conceptual map is constantly redrawn and the words of a language reflect its change

What is semiotics?

• Study of signs = “semiology” (Saussure)

• Culture can be understood as a language → this development is called “the linguistic turn”

• Term for this approach: semiotics

What does it mean to understand culture as a text?

• Hall: “since all cultural objects convey meaning, and all cultural practices depend on meaning, they must make use of signs; and in so far as they do, they must work like language works”

• Language of film, language of food, language of fashion → these (and other Cultural phenomena) are referred to by scholars as “texts”

  • Because they can be “read” (analysed and interpreted)

The language of film

• Obviously visual signs; shots become equivalent to words; a scene becomes a sentence → this is the parallelization, but it doesn’t completely work

• Filmic signs: paradigma of available shot from which directors choose from influcenes the meaning of the film just as much as the syntagm (the way the selected shots are arranged in sequence) does

The language of fashion

• Clothes are not only functional, they also carry meaning

• Certain items are chosen and combined in specific ways

  • Paradigmatic class: socks, trousers, tshirts, jackets, socks

  • Syntagmatic sequence: combination of those

• Guided by conscious and unconscious knowledge about the meaning of certain clothes

• the combination changes the meaning

• Hall:  “not everybody reads fashion in the same way. There are differences of gender, age, class, ‘race’” 

• Meaning depends on many factors (like the combination, social background, etc)

The foundation of the semiotic approach

• On a different cultural level a tie can also signify the concept of elegance → this is called “basic level meaning”

• Denotation and connotation

  • Denotation: the image of sth signifies the thing itself (tie - tie)

    • Hall: “the simple, basic, descriptive level, where consensus is wide and most people would agree on the meaning”

  • Connotation: the image of sth signifies a larger concept (tie - formality)

    • Hall: “broader themes and meanings […] the general beliefs, conceptual frameworks and value systems of society” 

    • Shared, cultural meanings - NOT personal associations

The Study of Connotations (as a discipline)

• Both common on Literary and Cultural Studies; the difference:

  • Literary Studies studies connotations of a certain representation in literary texts

  • Cultural Studies studies connotations in all kinds of cultural phenomena, and interpret them

• Example: Tribute of Panem, the reaping