Page 55 - Critical and Cultural Theory

CHAPTER 4

REPRESENTATION

REPRESENT - to exhibit the image of: to use, or serve, as a
symbol for: to exhibit, depict, personate, show an image of, by
imitative art: to act: to be a substitute, agent, deputy, member
of parliament, or the like, for: to correspond or be in some
way equivalent or analogous to: to serve as a sample of: to
present earnestly to mind: to give out, make to appear, allege
(that). REPRESENTATION - act, state, or fact of represent-
ing or being represented: that which represents: an image:
picture: dramatic performance: a mental image: a presentation
of a view of facts or arguments: a petition, remonstrance,
expostulation: assumption of succession by an heir: a body of
representatives. (Chambers Twentieth-Century Dictionary)

These definitions are not intended to supply a prescriptive or
exhaustive model of analysis. However, they seem to provide an
appropriate starting point for the present discussion because they
highlight the complexity and multi-accentuality of the issue of
representation. Indeed, the main aim of this chapter is to show
that the study of representation must take into account a wide
variety of cultural phenomena, philosophical perspectives and
ideological programmes. Why have human beings operating in
disparate cultural and historical contexts felt the need to represent
themselves and their environments? Why do certain cultures
openly admit to the constructed and fictional status of their repre-
sentations and others seek to pass them off as natural and real?
What do different forms of representation tell us about the socie-
ties, communities and individuals that produce them? Who are
representations addressed to or aimed at?

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