Representation from The Work of Representation by Stuart Hall

These flashcards cover key vocabulary and concepts from Stuart Hall's lecture on representation, including definitions and explanations of various theories and terms.

Representation

Using signs and images to stand for or represent things in the world.

Language

A system of representation that helps to construct the world's meaning, not just a mirror of external reality.

Codes

Shared understandings of signs that enable effective communication within a culture.

Reflective Approach

The theory that meaning exists in the real world and language reflects it directly.

Intentional Approach

The perspective that meaning is determined by what the speaker or writer intends to convey.

Constructionist Approach

The theory that meaning is created through language and is the primary focus in Stuart Hall's work.

Signifier

The physical form of a sign, such as the sound or image of a word.

Signified

The concept or mental image that a sign represents.

Myth

A second-order signifying system that builds on existing signs and provides new cultural meanings.

Discourse

A system of knowledge and power that shapes the production of statements and excludes others.

Discursive Practices

The ways in which discourse is enacted in specific institutions, shaping the understanding of knowledge.

Power/Knowledge

The concept that knowledge is intertwined with power and that power produces knowledge.

Subject

An identity produced by discourse, shaped by social systems and categories.

Las Meninas

A painting by Diego Velázquez illustrating the instability of perspective and the absence of a fixed subject.

Saussure's Legacy

Ferdinand de Saussure's contribution to understanding language as a social system comprising 'langue' and 'parole'.

Langue

The underlying abstract system of a language, encompassing its rules and conventions, which enables communication.

Parole

The individual, concrete acts of speech or writing that people perform using the rules of 'langue'.

Arbitrary Nature of the Sign

The concept, from Saussure, that there is no natural or inherent connection between a signifier (e.g., a word) and its signified (the concept it represents); their link is based on social convention.