Stuart Hall- Representation

Plato’s Cave Allegory

represents the world of illusion and perception, which doesn’t always reflect reality

What is representation?

Representation is an essential part of culture and meaning, a process by which meaning is produced and exchanged between members

Involves use of language, sings, and images to stand for and represent things

3 types of representation (think meaning)

REFLECTIVE: does language simply reflect an already existing meaning?

INTENTIONAL: does language convey the personal intended meaning of the speaker?

CONSTRUCTIONIST: is meaning created through language?

Two basic units of signs and representation

signifier: the form of the sign

signified: concept or object that is being represented

Roland Barthes’ semiotics

Signs are anything that create meaning, and can be used to represent things,

They are not only words or images, but objects as well.

• eg clothes are signs of taste, designer brands signal a certain status

Types of Signs

ICONS: physically represent what it stands for

INDEXES: casual relation between sign and what it stands for

SYMBOLS: arbitrary

Stuart Hall and unfixed meaning

Meaning isn’t inherent to objects/people/things/words. Meaning is CONSTRUCTED by systems of representation.

Constructed and fixed by the CODE which sets up the correlation between conceptual systems and language systems, in a way that codes tell us to call trees trees

It becomes natural and inevitable.

Two systems of representation

Mental Representation: organised system of concepts in our head

Shared Language: organised systems of signs carrying and expressing meanings

• relation between the two is secured by the CODE

• CODES are historical and cultural: MEANING IS UNFIXED AND UNSTABLE

Foucault’s Representation

Physical facts remain the same, and are real, but meaning differs depending on context.

Objects are only certain things to the extent that it establishes a system of relations with other objects that aren’t given by the mere referentiality of the object

PHYSICAL OBJECTS EXIST, but with no real or fixed meaning

• eg football can be sports equipment or murder weapon lol depending on how its used (knives and pillows are lowkey good examples)

Objects only take on meaning and become institutionalised objects through LANGUAGE AND SOCIAL PRACTICES

Foucault’s radical take?

Meaning only arises WITHIN discourse, where subjective knowledge can be applied

It is discourse that produces knowledge, not the subjects who speak it. They are operating within the limits of the episteme, the discursive foundation.

• subject is PRODUCED within discourse