Page 58 - Critical and Cultural Theory

REPRESENTATION
change, and of the particular cultural contexts in which represen-
tations are both produced and consumed. This attitude must be
challenged, for 'the real ought to be understood not as a transcen-
dent and immutable given, but as a production brought about by
human activity working within specific cultural constraints'
(Bryson 1983: 5). At the same time, it is necessary to question the
assumption that Visual experience' is 'universal and transhistori-
cal' (Bryson 1983: 10), for the ways in which we perceive represen-
tations are as historically contingent as the representations
themselves. A recognition of the immanently cultural and social
character of all representations simultaneously entails a recogni-
tion of the historical situation of the viewing subject. As soon as
we acknowledge that representations are cultural fabrications, the
realist ethos is radically undermined. We gradually realize that if
an image can be constructed, it can also be taken apart into its
constituent elements and that each of these elements can offer
precious insights into our culture's ideology and, in particular,
into the connection between the control of representation and
political power.
Thus, the central concern of any critical assessment of represen-
tations should consist of denaturalizing both the cultural images
and the institutionalized responses to such images that surround
us at all times. This entails questioning many of the concepts and
symbols which we are generally invited to take for granted as
timeless, objective and a matter of common sense. Any cultural
product can be approached as a form of representation offering
vital clues to a culture's belief systems, its interpretations of reality
and its ways of translating both factual and fictional situations
into images. Any representation, in turn, can be approached as a
text, or a system of signs. 3 How such a text signifies is as impor-
tant as what it signifies. Moreover, although a specific representa-
tional form may seem to be defined by techniques, devices and
aims intrinsic to that form alone, we must increasingly be aware of
the crucial role played by interdisciplinarity and cross-fertilization
in the production of cultural images and in the dissemination of
their ideological messages.
It is also important to bear in mind that the collusion of repre-
sentation and ideology is not just a contemporary phenomenon,

3
•*" This theme is examined in detail in Part I, Chapter 6, Textuality'.
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