cultural representations definition

Theories of Cultural Representation

Faculty in theories of cultural representation.

Many faculty and students in our graduate program focus upon the intersections among bodies, minds, and cultural representations, both as part of historical, textual, and rhetorical scholarship and as programs of study within their own right. We are particularly interested in how cultures and individuals represent themselves to themselves and to others, how cultures appropriate language and literatures, and how language can construct personhood. Professors regularly teach feminist theory courses that are also informed by critical race studies, as well as theory courses that explore the intersections of biography, nationhood, and religion, and that historicize and contextualize the human body, considering health, disability, gender, sexuality, race and other identity categories. Recent seminars in the department that foreground critical and cultural theories in these contexts include “Triangulating Transatlanticism,” “Disability, Health, and the Early Modern Body,” “Issues in Feminist Theory,” “Critical Theory,” “The Posthuman: Rhetorics of the UnDead,” “Postcolonial Literature and Theory,” “Rewritten Shakespeare,” and “Media Theory.”

Course work in this area may include, but is not limited to, the following courses :

ENGL 6580 Topics in Multicultural Literature

ENGL 6600 Issues in Feminist Theory and Criticism

ENGL 6810 History of Literary Criticism

ENGL 6820 Contemporary Literary Theory

ENGL 6830 Topics in Criticism and Theory

ENGL 6836 Writing about Health and Medicine

ENGL 6850 Topics in Multicultural Literature

ENGL 8850 Seminar in Criticism and Theory

ENGL 8900 Current Issues in Rhetorical Theory

Areas of examination could include but are not limited to :

English Language, Old English, Middle English, Renaissance Drama, Renaissance excluding Drama, Restoration and 18th Century, Romantic, Victorian, American to 1900, 20th-Century British, 20th-Century American, African American, Rhetoric and Composition, and Literary Criticism and Theory.

Related Research Approaches

Theory & Criticism

Representation & Cultural Memory

Representations of the past, and the struggle over what of the past should be remembered, make our culture what it is.

Victoria Allen

You may have noticed the term representation which has popped up a number of times in this introductory course to Cultural Studies. For Stuart Hall, representation “is one of the central practices which produce culture”. 1 Yet, what exactly do we understand by this term? In principle, representation is a practice of cultural meaning making :

we give things meaning by the way we represent them, and the principal means of representation in culture is language . By language, we do not only mean language in the strict sense of written or spoken words. We mean any system of representation – photography, painting, speech, writing, imaging through technology, drawing – which allows us to use signs and symbols to represent or re-present whatever exists in the world in terms of a meaningful concept, image or idea. 2

It is important to note the emphasis on the prefix of ‘re-’ in re -presenting here, which accentuates a sense of repetition, as if a representation is simply a doubling, a mirroring of what was there before. In such an understanding, “the word representation or re presentation does sort of carry with it the notion that something was there already and, through the media, has been re presented”. According to Stuart Hall, “this notion that somehow representation re presents a meaning which is already there is a very common idea”, 3 but it is precisely this common understanding of representation that Hall aims to subvert. Instead, Cultural Studies insists that “meaning is constructed – given, produced – through cultural practices; it is not simply ‘found’ in things”. 4

For Cultural Studies, (media) representations, more than mechanically mirroring something already existing in the ‘real’ world, present an event on the basis and in the context of previously established meanings. In the case of an evening news report on, say, the 2024 US elections or the on-going post-Brexit negotiations, the news report we get to see that covers these topics is a presentation of events which already have a long history and, to varying degrees, may have already been relayed through various forms of previous media discourses . The presented version of events depends on the political perspective the news channel has developed, it depends on the respective editing and communication efforts of the reporters who build their representation of the events on a selection of earlier interviews and accounts of the events leading up to the news program, prior existing media memos, governmental and think tank reports, to name but a few. As a consequence, every representation is formed by a wider, pre-existing discourse:

A discourse is a group of statements which provide a language for talking about – i.e. a way of representing – a particular kind of knowledge about a topic. When statements about a topic are made within a particular discourse, the discourse makes it possible to construct the topic in a certain way. It also limits the other ways in which the topic can be constructed. 5

This is not to say, however, that representation through media is a mere distortion of reality. Rather, Cultural Studies’ concept of representation draws attention to the fact, that despite our efforts to search for the ‘true meaning’, there exists no one true fixed meaning beforehand that representations could then distort. This does not mean that things do not exist outside of discourse, outside representations. Of course they do. And neither does it mean that events are not influenced by various factors that have little to do with representation; biological or physical forces, for example. It is merely to say that they do not exist meaningfully , until they are represented, imagined, talked about. 6

The study of representations combines the understanding of the practices and processes of semiotics , myth-making and discourse formation in order to determine the processes of meaning construction. In this sense, Cultural Studies does not concentrate on the truthfulness of a depiction, but on the conditions of its construction. And we as Cultural Studies practitioners thus focus on how representations and their understandings change and are shaped according to their history, background, context, and the respective positions of the creators and receivers of representations.

There is a second, more political dimension to the term ‘representation’, however, beyond questions of a truthful depiction. To represent, in a political, legal, or even sporting context, is to stand (in) for , as in being (officially) present for someone else or a group of people. Legal, political and social representatives speak and act on behalf of others: sportspeople can represent teams, towns, clubs and countries; MPs (are supposed to) represent their constituency in a representative democracy; trade unions represent the interests of workers. The important question in this context is: does someone who is supposed to stand (in) for you represent you well, do they further your interests? Do you feel represented by that flag, that person, that object, that report? For example: if a football player represents England, is she then representative, i.e. typical for England, and can you identify with her? In this second sense, Cultural Studies does not ask for the conditions of the construction of meaning, but for its social effects.

Cultural Studies highlights the “overlap between representative and representation in their political and artistic senses”. 7 Is the meaning ascribed to a thing or person in a movie or a novel representative of such a thing or a person? Will we meet such a thing or person in real life with such attributions in mind? Who would benefit from this, and who would not? To answer such questions, it is important to also consider the parties invested and interested in creating and fixing meanings. Which is why

the question of the circulation of meaning almost immediately involves the question of power. Who has the power, in what channels, to circulate which meanings to whom ? Which is why the issue of power can never be bracketed out from the question of representation. 8

By studying representations, we look at the relevance of meaning creation and the way in which meaning is produced and transmitted in and through media such as: television news reports and newspaper articles; films and novels; memes and TikTok videos; the flags of countries and regions, or the wearing of replica football jerseys. Cultural Studies concentrates on how, exactly, representations contribute to the constitution of an event, person or thing: which terms, images and stereotypes are employed to represent something, which qualities, values and social roles are ascribed to the represented, which “narratives, stories – and fantasies – [are woven] around them”. 9 Cultural Studies asks who or what exerts pressure and sets limits on what is presented (presences), and what not (absences); and it inquires into the subject positions that representations create for readers, listeners or viewers.

An example of such practices is the representation of fandom, as in belonging to and supporting a football club. In the context of a football event, the group of people gathering at the stadium, or sitting in a pub with a pint to watch the match on TV, wearing a t-shirt depicting red and white stripes ( signifier ) shows the wearers’ support ( signified ) for the football club whose colors are also red and white and whose players are kitted out in the same colors. Wearing the replica shirt represents their support of the club whose team is playing. As football fans, the shirt colors represent the team and wearing the team’s colors represents their fandom and belonging to the club.

However, despite their shared love for the club they support, not all fans wear the same shirt. They might have different player names printed on the back of the shirt, they might wear shirts from previous seasons sporting different sponsors or earlier club crest designs, they might wear a club hoody instead of a replica shirt, as the fans of FC St. Pauli Hamburg often do. With this, the fans can express different shades of their support for the club: they might signal their opposition to the current owners of the club and their longing for previous, better times; or they might want to show their resistance against commercializing developments within the footballing world. Thus, different representations compete with each other: THIS is the football club I follow, not THAT. Through these processes of representation, the fans in fact constitute the object of their devotion in different ways: the team, but not the owners; previous incarnations, but not the current one; certain players, but not others. These club colors and crest wearing supporters all love their club, but the club might mean different things to them.

Such everyday practices of representation are further complicated by representations in the media. For a long time, events involving football fans were only represented on the news when violent or dangerous behavior was involved. Here, the football fan was mainly represented as a young, alienated and aggressive male. When such depictions were taken as representative, government policies and policing strategies were targeted towards precisely these figures. Current productions like Sunderland ’til I Die (Netflix, 2018-2020) or Welcome to Wrexham (FX, 2022-) show a more diverse fan structure with strong roots in the local community. We can now ask: who has the power to represent football fans in the media? In whose interest is it to present fans in certain ways? Do different media (public TV, streaming, social media) produce different representations? How do different representations, fictional or not, constitute the subject? Which discourses determine the representation of fans? Which media technologies influence their representation?

Cultural Memory as Cultural Representations of the Past

Now, if meaning is created through representations, meaning is therefore dependent on how something is represented. And, in order to (temporarily) fix or define a meaning, representations are required. These cultural processes are also relevant when we discuss our understanding of the past, since it is through representations of the past that we create an understanding of bygone eras and events and these representations form our perception of the world. The concept of cultural memory helps us, in this regard, to understand the function of representing the past in and for the present .

Memory is studied in different subjects and fields from a range of perspectives, the most obvious being the mental and cognitive fields, yet also including and, sometimes, combining with social, material or medial aspects of memory. So, rather than a psychological, or even neuronal research into individual memory, the study of memory in Cultural Studies is more concerned with the cultural, collective and social creations and uses of memory.

“The term ‘ cultural memory’ accentuates the connection of memory on the one hand and socio-cultural contexts on the other”. 10 This cultural approach to memory takes the view, in addition to the idea of individual memory on an inner, personal level, that memory also exists on a societal level, where memory is “a matter of communication and social interaction”. 11 This means that memory can be analyzed as a function of our social life, making it a relevant category for anthropological, sociological and cultural and media research.

Cultural memory is concerned with studying representations of the past as a way to explain which , why and how certain memories are retained and remembered, while other past events are suppressed or even forgotten by a culture. An example of the use of cultural memory is the depiction of the ‘heroes’ (or, perhaps, villains) of the British Empire erected on the plinths arranged on Trafalgar Square which are to honor and remember the achievements of the British nation. As representations of important figures of British history, the statues are cultural markers which aim to recall specific representative instances of Britain’s past, the remembrance of which is important for contemporary perceptions of Britain and its future.

The Fourth Plinth Project (1999-2001) and subsequent Plinth Commission (2005-present) work within this public and historic place of cultural signification; their temporarily exhibited selection of contemporary artworks aims to give a platform to allow for accounts of events and to represent people that have not been readily included in British history. This effort is visible in the display of Alison Lapper, Pregnant (Marc Quinn, 2005-2007) a marble sculpture which depicted the form of a disabled, female, pregnant body, or Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle (Yinka Shonibare, 2010-2012), which enters a dialogue with the cultural memory of the Battle of Trafalgar (1805) that was commemorated in the creation of Trafalgar Square at the center of which Nelson’s Column was erected. The British-Nigerian artist’s replica of Nelson’s HMS Victory adds a colonial dimension to the square’s previous cultural memory of reveling in Britishness and the triumphs of the past empire, since the sails of Shonibare’s ship are printed in a colorful pattern associated with African prints (originally produced in the Netherlands from Indonesian design techniques).

The cultural memory which is tapped into and reactivated by the artwork Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle therefore still remembers Nelson’s victory at the battle of Trafalgar and the subsequent ascendancy of the British Empire. However, the artwork also troubles the waters of this narrative by recalling Britain’s history as an imperial power and by highlighting its concomitant trade networks. This piece of art, commissioned by the Mayor of London’s Culture Team, is also an example of how representations of the past can be revisited and revised through culturally created artefacts. This recent representation demonstrates the contemporary desire to include a reflection of Britain’s colonial past to help critically engage with and understand this shift in the recounting of British history but, just as importantly, to represent people of color and publicly include them in the fabric of contemporary Britain. As such, the art installation becomes an agent of cultural memory, questioning who is allowed to speak for the past and who is silenced.

Cultural memory captures both the forgetting and remembering aspects of past occurrences; it distinguishes between the relevance and agency these past occurrences are given in the present. In this sense, cultural memory

can be divided into two areas: one storage and one functional. The storage memory collects and preserves information which has lost its immediate importance. We might call it society’s passive memory. By contrast, functional memory is the active memory of a we-group. 12

The functional memory of a we-group is shaped by selective, interest-led representations of the past. In other words, cultural memory is the cultural functionalization of memories through media representations. Cultural memory’s recollecting purpose is that it

provides a foundation for collectives ranging from small social groups to large units such as nations and states. It is created with the aid of different symbolic media (e.g. texts, pictures, buildings, rituals). Through common points of reference in the past and a shared fund of cultural traditions, such collectives establish their own we-identity. 13

The cultural memory examples discussed above are about pieces of art, regarded as high culture, and are supported by institutions such as the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) and the Mayor of London’s Culture Team, and thus promotes a specific understanding of what culture is. Yet, as we have found during this course, “culture is ordinary”. 14 So, while the plinths of Trafalgar Square are a good example of the use of representations for cultural memory, following Raymond Williams’ notion, cultural memory can also be regional or local in scale.

Indeed, returning to our footballing example above, we can see less grandiose though perhaps more pervasive instances within the broad scope of cultural memory. AFC Sunderland, a football team in the North East of England, is represented by red and white stripes, and employs cultural memory as a way of creating a sense of group belonging with its fan base. The North East of England was once famed for its coal mining production and a large proportion of the people living in the city directly worked down the pits or were indirectly part of coal mining culture. However, with the UK’s deindustrialization and decommissioning of deep cast coal mining since the late 1970s, this form of industry no longer exists in the area. The closure of the last operating coal mine in the city in the mid-1990s meant an end to coal mining culture. The site of the last coal mine to be closed in the city was purchased by the local football club and was repurposed for the new home ground called The Stadium of Light.

Moving the home ground of an established football club is a culture shock, particularly for the traditional fan base. The demolition of the old ground and the move to the new location came at a difficult time of change for the city where deindustrialization caused the erosion of the local coal mining culture. The club manager and board members wanted to recall the city’s coal mining heritage by giving the new stadium a name that was intended to capture the miners’ experience of rising up from the underground dark into the light. Moreover, to create physical cultural memory markers to forge connections between the football club and the city’s coal mining heritage, the club kept the pit wheel, which they painted in red and exhibited (mounted on a platform) outside of the stadium where they also have a statue of a miners’ lamp – a traditional mining work utensil – as a symbol of light. These cultural artefacts are all material and medial efforts to maintain and forge a connection to the local fan base, creating a we-group through the recollection of a shared past and shared culture, in this case, of coal mining.

Cultural memory, similar to representation, appears to anchor meaning. However, it is through re-remembering that once fixed meanings can be changed since they are recalled by different people, in different contexts, at different times and for different reasons. Though memory is inherently connected to history, it is important to emphasize that memory is not concerned with the past as such, but with the constructions of representations: “In the context of cultural memory, the distinction between myth and history vanishes. What counts is not the past as it is investigated and reconstructed by archaeologists and historians but only the past as it is remembered”. 15

Much like the processes of representation, cultural memory functions to create meanings, drawing on representations and transferring them into the present. It is in this sense that representation is constitutive. The selection of specific cultural representations creates a shared collective experience and a common understanding of the past, which duly plays a role in perceiving the present or enacting an envisioned future. This purposeful depiction of the past in representations is what we call the functionalization of cultural memory. Representations and cultural memories shape our perceptions of reality and, therefore, our belief systems; perceptions are related to how we remember the past and, in turn, our culture is based on the ways and forms in which we create and engage with representations of the past and the present. This is why the study of representations and cultural memory, and the struggle over these, are central to the work of Cultural Studies.

• Stuart Hall, “Introduction”, in: Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices , ed. Stuart Hall, London: 1997, 1-11, here p. 1. ↑
• Paul du Gay, Stuart Hall, Linda Janes, Anders Koed Madsen, Hugh Mackay & Keith Negus, Doing Cultural Studies: The Story of the Sony Walkman , 2nd ed., Milton Keynes: 2013, p. 7. ↑
• Stuart Hall, Representation & the Media , Media Education Foundation Transcript, Northampton: 1997, p. 6. ↑
• du Gay et al., Doing Cultural Studies , p. 4. ↑
• Stuart Hall, “The West and the Rest: Discourse and Power”, in: Formations of Modernity , eds. Stuart Hall & Bram Gieben, Cambridge: 1992, 275-320, here p. 291. ↑
• Cf. Hall, Representation & the Media , p. 12. ↑
• Raymond Williams, Keywords. A Vocabulary of Culture and Society , 2nd ed., London: 1983, p. 269. ↑
• Hall, Representation & the Media , p. 14. ↑
• Hall, “Introduction”, p. 4 ↑
• Astrid Erll, “Cultural Memory Studies: An Introduction”, in: Companion to Cultural Memory Studies , eds. Astrid Erll & Ansgar Nünning, Berlin: 2010, 1-18, here p. 4. ↑
• Jan Assmann, “Communicative and Cultural Memory”, in: Companion to Cultural Memory Studies , eds. Astrid Erll & Ansgar Nünning, Berlin: 2010, 109-118, here p. 109. ↑
• Aleida Assmann, Introduction to Cultural Studies: Topics, Concepts, Issues , Berlin: 2012, p. 189. ↑
• Raymond Williams, “Culture is Ordinary”, in: Conviction , ed. Norman MacKenzie, London: 1958, 74-92, here p. 75. ↑
• Jan Assmann, “Communicative and Cultural Memory”, in: Cultural Memories: The Geographical Point of View , eds. Peter Meusburger et al. Dordrecht: 2011, 15-27, here p. 19. ↑

Selected Bibliography

• Assmann, Aleida: Introduction to Cultural Studies: Topics, Concepts, Issues , Berlin: 2012.
• Erll, Astrid & Ansgar Nünning, eds.: A Companion to Cultural Memory Studies , Berlin: 2010.
• Hall, Stuart, ed.: Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices , 2nd ed., London: 2013.

FURTHER LISTENING: Listen to Gary Younge explaining why every single statue should come down.

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11 Representation

Dr. Saradindu Bhattacharya

Section 1: Introduction – Definition and Scope

Representation, in a broad sense, refers to any act, process or product of verbal, auditory and/or visual portrayal of human experience. In a fundamental sense, all representation is about language. The term ‘language’ has been used here to mean not just a mode of communication based on the spoken or the written word but any system of signs that stand in relation to one another and are used, based on common agreement, to represent certain objects and ideas. For example, a variety of pictorial ‘signs’ are used in mathematics to indicate basic functions of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division and constitute a specific ‘language’ that represents relations between numbers. Similarly, the use of different kinds of tunes as background music in films to indicate the ‘mood’ of various scenes is an exercise in language as sound itself functions as a ‘sign’. There are different kinds of signs, namely, icons, indices and symbols. An icon is a sign that bears a certain resemblance to the object or the idea it represents. Thus, for example, the pictorial markers on the doors of men’s and women’s toilets, or those meant for the disabled, resemble, in a diagrammatic way, the outward physical form of the user and function as signs. An index is a sign that bears a relation of proximity or causality to what it represents. For instance, a tombstone is a sign of death both because it is erected in memory of the deceased and because it bears an actual, physical proximity to the body of dead person. The third kind of sign, the symbol, is by far is the most dominant in most languages, since it is not restricted by considerations of physical resemblance or proximity and is simply used as a matter of convention to stand in for any idea or object to which it bears no obvious connection. For example, the word ‘apple’, both in its spoken and written form, has no natural relation to the fruit it represents except the one that the linguistic tradition establishes. There are some signs that may have iconic, indexical as well as symbolic value. For instance, the Holy Cross serves as an index because it represents the very object on which Christ was crucified; it is also an icon because of its potential to serve as visual reminder of Christ’s suffering and sacrifice; finally, it functions as a symbol because it represents abstract values like kindness, charity and forgiveness that Christ is held to embody. It is obvious that the meaning(s) a particular sign represents, though assigned arbitrarily, emerge from very specific cultural contexts and become codified through sustained use over time.

Notions of culture are also inextricably related to representation, as it is the myriad forms in which all human knowledge is expressed and transmitted from one generation to the next that constitutes human civilization. Ancient philosophers like Plato and Aristotle grappled with the concept of representation, with the former critiquing art as being twice removed from reality and the latter defending it on the grounds that it represents things as they should be rather than as they are. Among the pre-historic forms of art that have survived into the modern age are the cave paintings found in Asia and Europe, which represent various animals that human beings encountered in the early stages of civilization. In ancient Greece and Rome, more complex forms of representation emerged, which dealt with human experience of loss and suffering as well as wonder and joy. Thus, classical Greek and Roman drama, involving the use of costumes and music combined with poetry and dialogue, sought to represent the social and political realities and belief systems of its times. In the modern world, the emergence of mass media has had a deep impact on the methods and means of representation, both of actual human experience and of the possibilities of human imagination. Thus, for instance, while on the one hand digital technology makes it possible for a doctor to look inside the human body for medical research or surgical intervention, on the other hand the possibilities of such technological innovations are reflected in science fiction that often represents hybrid bodies and their role in society. Thus, it is evident that representation is culturally and historically specific insofar as it reflects the conditions of human existence and is determined by the means through which humans ‘re- present’ their experiences and ideas. In fact, the various branches of study that are now part of the institutional structures of the academia all deal with representations in some form or the other. Thus, biomedicine treats the human body as a system of organs that is susceptible to invasion, anthropology investigates differences between peoples and cultures based on ethnicity, political science examines the constitution of states based on notions of citizenship and nationality. Each of these disciplines selects its own methods of enquiry into what are essentially different aspects of common human experience, and evolves its own specific ‘language’ for representing that experience. Thus, for example, a biology textbook may describe the experience of cancer in terms of the uncontrolled growth of malignant tissue in the human body, a sociological survey may indicate correspondences between certain kinds of lifestyles with the incidence of the disease, while a novel may focus on the individual patient’s contemplation of and confrontation with issues of beauty, loss and mortality. The process of representation is thus essentially one that involves the specialized use of language within a cultural context.

Section 2: Representation – Theories, Practice and Significance

Representation is always culturally rooted because language itself is never a transparent, objective medium for the communication of meaning. The meaning(s) of a particular sign are delimited by what its users consider to be its valid utterance within a specific social and cultural context. In fact, the ‘reality’ that language represents is always contingent, provisional and mediated and never quite simply ‘neutral’. For example, the use of the images of two birds pecking or two flowers dangling together in the air in popular Hindi cinema of the 1960s and 70s signified sexual activity between the hero and heroine. This symbolic linguistic code came to be shared and understood by filmmakers and cine-goers within a certain cultural context where explicit public representation of sex was considered taboo. Thus, the language of cinema, in this case, not only denotes romantic love as it is experienced by the fictional characters on screen but also suggests the audience’s attitudes towards sex. The repeated use of such imagery turns these signs into codes bearing conventionalized meanings and thereby reinforces common beliefs and values till the point that they seem ‘natural’ and ‘real’. The construction and reinforcement of ‘reality’ through such reiterative application of language is known as discourse. Academic attention to the study of discourse in the 20th century has been sharply focused on how different individuals and communities are represented within regimes of power that construct their distinct social and cultural identities. Thus, scholars of gender studies have looked into the politics of representation of women in the domains of literature and art, science, politics and law, and have related it to the subservient position they occupy in patriarchal society; similarly, scholars of postcolonial studies have investigated how the construction of an inferior non-European racial identity for the colonized subject through sustained representation by the colonizer assisted the Western imperialist project. The integral connection between social ‘reality’ and power and forms of representation has thus been the chief object of academic enquiry across disciplines, especially in the humanities and social sciences. In fact, in the latter half of the 20th century, poststructuralist theorists like Roland Barthes and Jacques Derrida have pointed out that all ‘reality’ is available to us only as representation; that is to say, we do not have a direct, unmediated access to the true nature of objects and experiences – what we have are various representations of those objects and experiences in language. This is not to suggest that the world of objects that we experience and respond to every day has no material existence; rather, any knowledge about that world is made available to us through the medium of language. Also, any act of communication about that world must necessarily happen in and through language. For example, even an experience as common as a headache can be described by one individual to another only in linguistic terms such as “throbbing pain” or “dull pressure”. Complex dimensions of pain, such as the emotional trauma resulting from grief and loss, also become communicable when such experience is represented in culturally recognizable ways. Thus, survivors of the Holocaust or the Partition are able to narrate their ‘stories’ to those who have not witnessed or undergone such trauma by representing their experiences in the common language of human suffering. In a sense, the discursive representation of individual and collective experiences ‘constructs’ these as objects of knowledge that can be interpreted, assimilated and communicated in various social and cultural contexts.

Representation is therefore not merely a matter of the linguistic construction of the ‘reality’ of human experience – it also pertains to the actual application of the knowledge thus created to the ordering of various social relations between individuals and groups. For example, the representation of members of certain castes and tribes in India as victims of social exploitation and oppression not only creates their group identity as one that merits sympathetic consideration but also translates into the implementation of actual social and political policies of reservation in public educational institutions and offices. Quite naturally, representation has become one of the most important subjects of enquiry in the domain of cultural studies, since it reflects the very structure of the organization of human thought and action within specific social contexts. The experience of everyday life, on which scholars of cultural studies base their observations and theories, is fundamentally determined by the ways in which individuals represent themselves to one another as agents in particular social relations. Such representation, in turn, also reinforces those social relations and is therefore crucial to the establishment and maintenance of structures of power. Thus, for instance, the relation between a teacher and her students is based on the institutionalized representation of the former as the repository of very specialized forms of knowledge and the latter as learners who ought to inculcate qualities like obedience, patience and perseverance in order to acquire that knowledge. The students’ acquisition of such knowledge then facilitates the reproduction of similar relations of power when they themselves teach others within a familial or an academic structure. Cultural studies engages with the performance of individual identities and roles within various structures of power and investigates how representation itself functions both as the cause and the effect of the web of social relations within which we make sense of our experiences as human beings.

Section 3: Representation, Stereotypes and Identity

The sustained representation of particular communities, based on a few distinct characteristics that they are commonly believed to possess, often leads to the emergence of stereotypes. The discriminating factor in such cases of stereotyping may be race, gender, sexuality, age, class, region, religion, language or nationality. Members of a certain group, identified in terms of any of these factors, are represented as embodying the peculiar physical, intellectual, linguistic or behavioral traits that mark them out from others. The effect of such representation, in myriad domains (politics, trade and commerce, arts) and across various media (TV, film, newspapers, internet), is that the repeated associations of these traits with individuals and communities become part of the ‘common’ knowledge about them and turn into popular beliefs. Thus, what is essentially a matter of popular perception becomes over time an easy, but often reductive, way of identifying and responding to a particular individual or group. Jokes based on ethnic or racial differences are one of the most common examples of cultural stereotyping through representation. For instance, the Santa-Banta jokes that are immensely popular in India are based on the common perception of the Punjabis as a people who are not very bright. The representation of Punjabi characters as good natured dimwits in popular fiction (such as the novels of Chetan Bhagat), in cinema (like Karan Johar’s films), on TV (shows like Comedy Nights with Kapil), and increasingly on the web (cartoons shared by members of social networking sites) together constitute the cultural context in which the humour of such jokes is generated and commonly understood. While such ‘funny’ acts of representation may seem innocent and harmless, they can give rise to prejudices that result in serious discriminatory behaviour against individuals based on their group identity. Thus, the Nazi representation of the Jews as a devious, parasitic, mercenary race through the 1930s formed the political, social and cultural background against which the horrors of the European Holocaust unfolded during the Second World War.

Another consequence of stereotyping is that the unique characteristics of an individual often get subsumed under his/her group identity. Since stereotypes function by focusing on and exaggerating a limited number of qualities that a person or a community is deemed to possess and expected to exhibit, they do not allow for the representation of other qualities that do not conform to the received image of that person or community. In this sense, stereotypes are a form of cultural representation that is restrictive and reductive rather than reflective and realistic. For example, the American stereotype about Indians being naïve and somewhat effeminate (derived from the colonial tradition of such representation of the Oriental subject) is evident in the portrayal of Raj Koothrappali in the immensely popular sitcom The Big Bang Theory. The character’s considerable professional achievements as a scientist – he has a doctorate in astrophysics and holds a faculty position at an American university – are rendered secondary by the narrative focus on his exceptionally privileged upbringing (parents who are “very rich in a very poor country”), his repressed sexuality (he struggles to communicate with women, presumably because of the segregation of the sexes in India), and his occasional lapse of command over the English language and lack of knowledge about American culture. All of these character traits represent Raj as a ‘funny’ character based on a degree of racial stereotyping that would be considered politically incorrect in a government document but is quite commonly accepted and enjoyed on public television. Though the show does establish an affinity between Raj and his other colleagues, his racial difference from them forms the basis of the construction of his ‘identity’ within this peer group. Raj’s responses to many of the comic situations in the show are influenced by his ‘Indianness’; conversely, the other characters’ responses to his behaviour are also frequently governed by their perception of his native cultural background. The construction and interpretation of stereotypes through popular representation(s) is thus not only about identity but also about identification – the former being the ways in which the individual perceives himself in a social group and the latter being the ways in which the group understands the individual’s role and position within its structures.

Section 4: Representation, Discourse and Ideology

The patterns of representation of individuals and groups in various domains of private and public existence not only construct their distinct identities but also result in the formation of discursive frameworks within which all their thoughts, ideas and actions find meaning. The sustained use of language in particular ways across various media (that is, discourse) constitutes the individual as a ‘subject’. Here, the term ‘subject’ denotes not just the theme or the matter of representation (such as the racially specific characteristics of an individual) but also the individual himself in terms of how s/he thinks and behaves in culturally predetermined ways. For example, the popular representation of women as nurturers and care-givers and men as providers and defenders is enacted from the very early stages in the lives of children through the kinds of games they are encouraged to play. Dolls are most commonly given to girls who then mimic the ‘feminine’ domestic labour of cooking, feeding, cleaning and keeping house in the games they play with those dolls. On the other hand, the toys given to boys (such as models of automobiles and weapons) promote them to imitate the aggressive ‘masculine’ roles of fighters and racers. Thus, the discursive representation of the division of social labour on the lines of gender has an obvious material aspect in terms of how it guides the behaviour of human subjects. Insofar as individuals accept and willingly participate in the performance of these culturally constructed roles as ‘natural’, they can also be said to ‘subject’ themselves to such discursive regimes. The translation of such acts of representation into social codes of thought and action constitutes what is known in cultural theory as ‘ideology’. Ideologies often pervade many social institutions and domains and govern not just the speech and conduct of individuals but the collective consciousness and belief systems of entire communities. For example, the modern capitalist ideology, based on economic ideas of individual ownership of property, competition and maximization of profits in a free market, manifests itself in the discourses of academic excellence and discipline in schools and colleges, of obedience, responsibility, loyalty and inheritance in the family, and of consumption and pleasure in the public domains of trade, commerce and entertainment. Thus, a child grows up learning that rigorous improvement of one’s natural talents and acquisition of new skills, at school, in the playground, in quiz contests and music and dance reality shows, is essential to prepare oneself to participate in adult society as a productive member. At the same time, through constant exposure to the mass-marketed products of consumer culture (food, clothes, accessories, electronic gadgets, and so on), an individual learns from a very early stage in her life to recognize these are desirable and even essential to individual happiness and social status. Being a ‘successful’ citizen of such a global consumer society involves inculcating the economic values of productivity and possession on which it is based and actively participating in the institutions and processes through which such values are naturalized. Thus, ideology is not extraneous to the identity of an individual; rather, it is constitutive of the meanings that an individual makes of his or her own roles and position in society.

It must also be pointed out here that the relation between the representation, discourse and ideology is circular, that is to say, each influences the other as components of a reciprocal relationship. Forms of representation do not merely lead to the emergence of particular discourses and ideologies; the ideological bases for social institutions, practices and beliefs also legitimize certain kinds of cultural knowledge as valid and dismiss others as invalid through representation in language. For instance, the institution of marriage, based on patriarchal ideology, prescribes, in most cultures, heteronormative monogamy as the model for sexual relations and defines any other form of expression of sexuality as immoral and/or illegal. Those who do not adhere to such norms of socially acceptable behaviour are often described as deviant (derogatory terms like ‘faggot’, ‘fruit’, ‘nympho’), criminal (“threat to the fundamental structure of family and society”) or insane (genetically ‘abnormal’ or psychologically ‘disturbed’). We must also remember that allied discourses and ideologies do not function in isolation but often in tandem with one another. Thus, the ideology of nationalism is realized through myriad discourses across various media and public domains – in cinema through the representation of ‘heroic’ police officers and soldiers defending the country against smugglers and terrorists, in sports through the display of skill, teamwork and competitive zeal, in trade and commerce through the export of various ‘ethnic’ goods and cultural artefacts, and in politics through the assertion of principles like sovereignty, territorial integrity, and economic progress and self- sufficiency. These discourses have a direct impact on the way we perceive and project ourselves as belonging to one nation in spite of our internal linguistic and cultural differences and reinforce the idea of India in various representational forms. It must also be pointed out here that the representation of a particular object, concept, individual or group is dynamic in nature, that is, it changes across time periods and cultures. For instance, if India as a nation sought to establish its political independence from the British during the colonial period by resisting Western economic activity within its territory, the post-liberalization avatar of the nation is one that represents itself as an attractive ground for foreign investment and collaboration. Ideology itself may thus evolve to include new ideas and discourses, which manifest themselves as new forms of representation.

Section 5: Representation and Power

Since representation always involves the generation, establishment and reiteration of certain kinds of knowledge (about objects, individuals, belief systems and practices) and certain modes of thinking and belonging in society, it is inherently political in nature; that it to say, it is about the generation and maintenance of social power. Those who have control over and access to the language in which representation occurs enjoy the authority and power to decide which forms of knowledge are culturally legitimate and valuable. For instance, biomedicine as a discipline requires its practitioners to acquire rigorous scientific training in identifying pathological conditions, their causes and possible cures. The highly specialized and technical language of medicine used commonly by doctors results from, as well as signifies, their authority over the knowledge of the functioning of the human body. Thus, though the patient is the one who goes through the actual bodily sensations that mark a physical ailment, it is the doctor who has access to the language that codifies that physical experience as a disease and therefore also the power to suggest remedies for the same. Sometimes, patients of chronic ailments such as asthma acquire a certain degree of technical know-how about their own condition from their prolonged experience of being treated. In such cases, the patient may sometimes override the doctor’s diagnosis and engage in self-administration of medicines, thereby enacting an appropriation of the cultural knowledge that gives the doctor his or her authority and power. Thus, the question of power and representation is one that must take into account both the institution or person who represents and the one who gets represented.

The representation of one group of individuals by another often involves the exertion of control and power which may lead to oppression and exploitation in various forms. Thus, for instance, patriarchal ideology, based on the representation of women as being inferior to men, accords them a subservient social position in the domain of home and family (codified through the institution of marriage) as well as work (where female workers, ranging from the glamorous world of celluloid to the field of agriculture, are regularly paid lesser wages than their male counterparts). Similarly, the caste system in India has traditionally excluded members of Dalit communities from performing certain religious rituals and practices, accessing common sources of food and water, and participating in various academic and professional careers. It is the common acceptance and defence of such representations as the norm, not only by the ones who exert power but also by those who are thus subjugated, that enables certain oppressive modes of thought and behaviour to dominate social relations. Thus, when women or Dalits themselves internalize the inferior status accorded to them in society and adhere to the subordinate gender or caste roles prescribed for them by those in power, they perpetuate their own exploitation under such regimes of power. Quite naturally, the struggle for social power is essentially a struggle for control over representation. Thus, in the 20th century, feminists and Dalit activists have challenged the discriminatory assumptions on which traditional representations of gender or caste are based. Instead, they seek to uncover hitherto marginalized representations of gender and caste and thereby create an alternative history of culture and civilization. In the postcolonial context, subaltern narratives of liminal historical figures perform a similar revisionary function. Counter-representational narratives are also an effective means of interrogating prevalent discourses and ideologies. The innovative use of popular themes and motifs for the purposes of satire or parody is one of the ways in which representation serves to question traditional structures of power. For instance, a film like Queenemployswell-established generic conventions of romantic comedy and coming-of-age narratives to present a ‘love story’ that ends not in the protagonist’s marriage but with her realization of personal happiness and ambition outside the domain of matrimony. Thus, the film subtly challenges the patriarchal structures of power that define a woman’s identity and role in society only in terms of familial relationships. Conversely, in some cases, identification and acknowledgement of an individual’s or a community’s social disempowerment may also serve as a strategy for reclamation of power. Thus, the recent demands by certain groups of people to be recognized as Dalits in India may be seen as their attempt at accessing social power through the official channels of affirmative action.

The relation between representation and power has assumed new degrees of complexity in the era of globalization, as there is now a widespread collaboration between governments, industries and media houses, all of which exert a tremendous influence on the representation of individual, groups, cultures and nations. For example, Narendra Modi’s recent ascension to political power in India has been represented as the beginning of a new phase in the country’s march towards ‘progress’ and ‘development’ not only by national and international media channels but also by industrialists and business conglomerates, both at home and abroad, eager to reap the benefits of the increasing privatization of an enormous economy. At the same time, modes of representation have now become more easily accessible to common men and women with the coming of digital technology, which creates a more democratic, polyphonic space of interaction between myriad discourses and ideologies. Thus, social networking sites have been playing a major role in mobilizing public opinion on various social and political issues across the world. For example, the recent ‘Kiss of Love’ campaign in a few Indian cities evoked responses from across the country on the issue of moral policing through debates on social media. While the actual, physical participation in the campaign was restricted mainly to urban youth, the discussion it has generated in the virtual world brings up significant questions of individual freedom and expression, law and public morality, and cultural ethos. The struggle for social power, in this case, is one that is effected as well as analysed through the prism of popular representations of ideas and identities in the public domain. Representation has thus become one of the most contested terrains of theory and praxis within the field of cultural studies.

Audio-Visual Quadrant

The Representation Project<http://therepresentationproject.org/> Representation and the Media, by Stuart Hall <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sbYyw1mPdQ>

Media Coverage and Female Athletes <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVqHsMP-GTM> Killing Us Softly: Advertising’s Image of Women, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxfmdfj_KhQ>

Gendering of Toys

Racial Stereotypes in Popular Media

• Banaji, Shakuntala, ed. South Asian Media Cultures: Audiences, Representations, Contexts.
• London: Anthem Press, 2011.
• Gentz, Natascha, and Stephan Kramer, eds. Globalization, Cultural Identities, and Media Representations. New York: State University of New York Press, 2006.
• Hall, Peter A. et al, eds. The Politics of Representation in the Global Age: Identification,
• Mobilization, and Adjudication. New York: Cambridge UP, 2014.
• Hall, Stuart, ed. Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices. London: Sage, 1997.
• Hooks, Bell. Outlaw Culture. New York: Routledge, 1994.
• Owens, Craig. Beyond Recognition: Representation, Power, and Culture. Berkeley: U of California P, 1992.
• Pickering, Michael. Stereotyping: The Politics of Representation. London: Palgrave, 2001.

Alisa Acosta

Researcher, Designer, Educator

Representation, meaning, and language

In his interview with Eve Bearne, Gunther Kress argues that literacy is “that which is about representation” (Kress, in Bearne, 2005, p. 288).  Because “literacy” implies something that is mediated through text, in my previous post I questioned the idea of what constitutes a “text.” After further consideration, I feel that  representation  is the key; therefore, for the purposes of this post I have decided to pursue  representation  a bit further.

The following two graphics provide a visual model for the way I have come to understand  representation  through various readings (most notably, those by cultural theorist Stuart Hall). Although these models represent the culmination of my understanding, I thought it would be helpful to  begin  with these models and then proceed to deconstruct and explain them throughout the post.

Model 1: Theories of Representation

Cultural theorist Stuart Hall describes  representation  as the process by which meaning is produced and exchanged between members of a culture through the use of language, signs and images which stand for or represent things (Hall, 1997).  However, there are several different theories that describe how language is used to represent the world; three of which are outlined above:  reflective, intentional  and  constructionist.

With  reflective  approach to representation, language is said to function like a mirror; it reflects the true meaning of an object, person, idea or event as it already exists in the world.  The Greek word ‘ mimesis’  is used for this purpose to describe how language imitates (or “mimics”) nature.  Essentially, the  reflective  theory proposes that language works by simply reflecting or imitating a fixed “truth” that is already present in the real world (Hall, 1997).

The  intentional  approach argues the opposite, suggesting that the speaker or author of a particular work  imposes  meaning onto the world through the use of language.  Words mean only what their author intends them to mean.  This is not to say that authors can go making up their own private languages; communication – the essence of language – depends on  shared  linguistic conventions and shared codes within a culture.  The author’s intended meanings/messages have to follow these rules and conventions in order to be shared and understood (Hall, 1997).

The  constructionist  approach (sometimes referred to as the  constructivist  approach) recognizes the social character of language and acknowledges that neither things in themselves nor the individual users of language can fix meaning (Hall, 1997).  Meaning is not inherent within an object itself, rather we  construct  meaning using  systems of representation  (concepts and signs); I will elaborate upon these systems further in my second model.  According to Hall:

“Constructivists do not deny the existence of the material world. However, it is not the material world which conveys meaning: it is the language system or whatever system we are using to represent our concepts. It is social actors who use the conceptual systems of their culture and the linguistic and other representational systems to construct meaning, to make the world meaningful and to communicate about that world meaningfully to others.” (Hall, 1997, p. 25)

There are two major variants of the constructionist approach: the  semiotic  approach, which was largely influenced by the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure, and the  discursive  approach, which is associated with French philosopher Michel Foucault.

Semiotics is the study of signs in a culture (culture  as  language), though the  semiotic  approach doesn’t consider how, when or why language is used.  Saussure believed that language was a rule-governed system that could be studied with the law-like precision of a science (deemed “structuralism”).  He called this rule-governed structure “ la langue,”  and referred to individual language  acts  as “ la parole”  (Culler, 1976).  Many found Saussure’s model appealing because they felt it offered a closed, structured, scientific approach to “the least scientific object of inquiry – culture” (Culler, 1976, p. 29).

“Saussure’s great achievement was to force us to focus on language itself, as a social fact; on the process of representation itself; on how language actually works and the role it plays in the production of meaning.  In doing so, he saved language from the status of a mere transparent medium between  things  and  meaning .  He showed, instead, that representation was a  practice .” (Hall, 1997, p. 34)

With the  semiotic  approach, in addition to words and images, objects themselves can function as signifiers in the production of meaning (Hall, 1997).  Therefore from this perspective, going back to my previous post, my little book of plant pressings may in fact be considered a  text  since each little plant was chosen as a  representative  of an entire species.  Because they were being used to  represent  certain species, it is not the actual plant clipping itself that carries the meaning, rather it is the  symbolic function  it serves in generalizing the morphology, physiology, taxonomy etc.

What Saussure failed to address, however, were questions related to  power  in language (Hall, 1997). Cultural theorists eventually rejected the idea that language could be studied with law-like precision, mainly because language doesn’t operate within a “closed” system as Saussure suggests.  In a culture, language tends to operate across larger units of analysis – narratives, statements, groups of images, and whole discourses which operate across a variety of texts and areas of knowledge (Hall, 1997).

Michel Foucault used the word “ representation ” to refer to the production of  knowledge  (rather than just meaning) through the use of  discourses  (rather than just language) (Foucault, 1980).  His conception of “discourse” was less concerned about  whether  things exist, as it was with  where  meaning comes from. Discourse is always context-dependent.

J.P. Gee uses the concept of Discourse to describe the “distinctive ways of speaking, listening, reading and writing, coupled with distinctive ways of acting, interacting, valuing, feeling, dressing, thinking, believing with other people and with various object, tools, and technologies so as to enact specific socially recognizable identities engaged in specific socially recognizable activities” (Gee, 2008, p. 155).  As Foucault suggests in  The Archaeology of Knowledge,  “nothing has meaning outside of discourse” (Foucault, 1972).

Additionally, for Foucault the formation of discourses had the potential to sustain a “regime of truth” in a particular context.  No form of thought could claim absolute truth, because “truth” was all relative; knowledge, linked to power, can  make itself true .

“Here I believe one’s point of reference should not be the great model of language (langue) and signs, but that of war and battle.  The history which bears and determines us has the form of a war rather than that of a language: relations of power not relations of meaning”  (Foucault, 1980, p. 114-115)

Model 2: Systems of Representation

Meaning is always produced within language; it is the  practice  of representation, constructed through  signifying.   As described in the previous section, the “real world” itself does not convey meaning.  Instead, meaning-making relies two different but related systems of representation:  concepts  and  language .

Concepts  are our mental representations of real-world phenomena.  They may be constructed from physical, material objects that we can perceive through our senses (e.g. a chair, a flower, a tangerine), or they may be abstract things that we cannot directly see, feel, or touch (e.g. love, war, culture).  In our minds, we organize, cluster, arrange and classify different concepts and build complex schema to describe the relations between them (Hall, 1997).

If we have a concept for something, we can say we know its  meaning , but we cannot communicate this meaning without the second system of representation:  language .   Language  can include written or spoken words, but it can also include visual images, gestures, body language, music, or other stimuli such as traffic lights (Hall, 1997).  It is important to note that  language  is completely arbitrary, often bearing little resemblance to the things to which they refer.  As Stuart Hall describes:

“Trees would not mind if we used the word SEERT – ‘trees’ written backwards – to represent the concept of them… it is not at all clear that real trees  know  that they are trees, and even less clear that they know that the word in English which represents the concept of themselves is written TREE whereas in French it is written ARBRE! As far as they are concerned, it could just as well be written COW or VACHE or indeed XYZ” (Hall, 1997, p. 21)

Codes  govern the translation between  concepts  and  language .  These codes are culturally constructed and stabilize meanings within different languages and cultures.  (Note: although meanings can be  stabilized  within a culture, they are never finally  fixed.   Social and linguistic conventions change over time as cultures evolve).

Saussure referred to  the   form , or the  language  used to refer to a concept,   as “ the signifier,”  and the corresponding  idea  it triggered in your head (the  concept ) as “ the signified .”  Together, these constituted “ the sign,”  which he argued “are members of a system and are defined in relation to the other members of that system” (Culler, 1976, p. 19).

In order to produce meaning, signifiers have to be organized into a system of  differences  (Hall, 1997).  For example, it is not the particular colours used in a traffic light that carries meaning – red, yellow, green, blue, pink, violet or vermillion are all arbitrary.  What matters instead is that they are  different  and can be distinguished from one another.  It is the  difference  between Red and Green which signifies – not the colours themselves, or even the words used to describe them (Hall, 1997).

Therefore, going back to my plant pressings dilemma, I am now inclined to argue that my book of plant clippings  is  in fact a text.  My  wild rose  clipping, for example, serves as a material “ signifier ” to represent the  concept  of “ wild rose-ness ” (the  idea ) through its physiological  differences  to the other plants contained in the book.  Meaning is made through the fact that it  represents  wild roses – even though I could have chosen any other wild rose plant from which to take my representative sample.  The book itself is transportable and no longer tied to its immediate context of production, which was an important criterion for Lankshear and Knobel’s definition.

However, after compiling this research on  representation , I have also come to understand that the  definition  of “text” is less important than its  interpretation:

“There is a necessary and inevitable imprecision about language… There is a constant  sliding of meaning  in all interpretation, a margin – something in excess of what we intend to say – in which other meanings overshadow the statement or the text; where other associations are awakened to life, giving what we say a different twist.  So interpretation becomes an essential aspect of the process by which meaning is given and taken” (Hall, 1997, p. 32-33).

___________________________

References:

Bearne, E.  (2005).  Interview with Gunther Kress.  Discourse: studies in the cultural politics of education.  26(3):287-299

Culler, J.  (1976).  Saussure.  London: Fontana.

Foucault, M.  (1972).  The Archaeology of Knowledge.  London: Tavistock.

Foucault, M.  (1980).  Power/Knowledge.  Brighton: Harvester.

Gee, J.P.  (2008).  Chapter 8: Discourses and literacies.    in Social linguistics and literacies: Ideology in discourses, 3rd edition.  London: Routledge.

Hall, S. (Ed.)  (1997). Representation: Cultural representations and signifying practices. Chapter 1: Representation, meaning and language.  London Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage in association with the Open University. pp. 15-64

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Culture and Representations: Why Culture and Representation Matter

Introduction.

Cultural representations play a critical role in determining how people view certain aspects of a specific culture. By bringing out unique aspects of a given culture, representations make it easier to create a shared understanding of the culture and shape how it is viewed by the general public. Without representations, it will be more difficult to explain key concepts about a certain culture and the world views that are held by people of that culture. Representations aid in deconstructing different aspects of a specific culture and influence how people perceive the culture in general. Viewing representation as one of the crucial goals of media will help to assist people from underprivileged backgrounds and belonging to cultural minorities, thus promoting equality and social justice.

Three Things Learned about Culture and Representation

Cultural representations are mainly the result of long-standing cultural practices and beliefs that unite people of a specific group. Culture includes established practices, beliefs, and ways of life that are unique to a particular type of audiences. People belonging to a single culture have certain aspects of life that unite them and encourage them to behave in a way that allows them identify as the members of a group. According to Arvind, representations refer to how people bring out these unique characteristics of their culture (38). Therefore, the latter must be represented in one or more ways by the people who subscribe to them. Cultural representations, therefore, are a means of both validating certain practices associated with them, as well as spreading information and knowledge about them. When cultural practices are represented in popular media, more people get to understand their significance better and share experiences associated with them with other people. Therefore, encouraging the media to shed light onto marginalized cultures and representatives of minorities should be seen as an essential goal.

The fact that cultural representation can be used as a basis of political power was also highlighted in the course content. Cultural representations in the media are rarely associated with political or manipulative power, but they, in fact, have a significant amount of power in influencing how people perceive each other. Cultural representations that portray people in a particular way eventually determine how they are perceived by people of other cultures (Arvind 38). The representation of certain elements of culture can also be used to change how people interpret that aspect of culture and how they exercise it. As the discourse on a particular representation takes place, the beliefs and views of people regarding that aspect of culture may change in an intended way. Cultural representations can be used to portray a certain characteristic of culture either positively or negatively, which gives the people or groups who create them some level of political power and influence. The power to control representations can be the basis of cultural oppression, as it is possible to shape and change how people view a certain culture.

The analysis of the social role of language, or semiotics, was also useful as it provided practical information on how language is used in representations to explain different concepts of a specific society. Language in itself cannot be useful if it does not influence the views that people have about different aspects of life. In turn, semiotics will help to discover the deeper meaning of how language reflects societal changes. Language is, therefore, analyzed as a social tool that is used in representations to explain concepts that can shape the views that people have about life in general.

Why Culture and Representation Matter

The study of representation plays a key role in understanding the different aspects of a specific culture. According to Arvind, all meanings are created by historical events that are influenced either directly or indirectly by cultural factors (39). The representation of culture is, therefore, a key aspect of all essential historical events that have taken place in the past. Studying and understanding cultural representations, thus, provides crucial information that can be utilized to analyze and understand different characteristics of a particular culture (Quijano 171). Since representations include main beliefs and practices that are associated with a specific culture, understanding them makes it possible to deconstruct the culture and understand the significance of its different aspects, such as language form and traditional practices.

The use of cultural representations also promotes tolerance among people of different cultures. Through the analysis of the subject matter, one gains insights into the beliefs and customs of people of different backgrounds and learns to appreciate them (Williams 49). As a result, cultural differences lose the value they have, as one finds more useful information about people belonging to minority groups. Understanding the significance of certain cultural aspects encourages one to tolerate people of that culture more, as there is a shared understanding of what certain cultural practices mean (Escobar 155). Cultural tolerance reduces the impact of binary oppositions, where conflicting aspects of different cultures do not have a common ground. Since there is a shared understanding of what cultural practices mean, the value of any existing differences diminishes, which makes it easier for people to be more appreciative of other people’s cultures.

Cultural representation also enables people to make sense of the world by enabling people to use language to express their thoughts and beliefs about different aspects of life. The linguistic and semiotic approach to representation relies on the use of language to create symbols and images that can be understood to mean something about a certain aspect of life. According to Hall, a key role of language is to explain useful concepts about different aspects of life that can enable people to have a better understanding of their society and the world in general (13). Cultural representations, therefore, rely on language to explain often abstract concepts about life or a specific aspect of a certain culture.

A World without Representations

In a world without representations, communicating existing cultural knowledge would be substantially difficult, as it would be challenging to explain the cultural knowledge in question in a way that is easy for people to understand. It will also be quite complicated to share information about key cultural practices, as symbols and images that can be easily understood will not be used. Knowledge and information about other cultures will also be limited, which would reduce social tolerance and make it complicated for people of different cultures to understand each other. Language would also not be an effective tool of communication as its social application will be significantly limited.

Cultural representations play a key role in communicating useful information about different cultural practices and their significance. Through cultural representations, it is possible to understand existing world views about certain traditions and customs that are associated with a particular culture. Representations are also a source of political power, as they can shape how people perceive a specific culture. By creating a shared understanding of certain concepts of life, cultural representations also make it easier to eliminate binary oppositions that would otherwise make it difficult to overcome conflicting views or opinions about certain aspects of culture.

Works Cited

Arvind, Padmaja. “Stuart Hall’s Circuit of Culture- Media Culture- With Reference to Film.” IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science , vol. 24, no. 4, 2019, pp. 38-40.

Douglas, Mary. “Do Dogs Laugh? A Cross-Cultural Approach to Body Symbolism.” Journal of Psychosomatic Research , vol. 15, no. 4, 1971.

Escobar, Arturo. Encountering Development : The Making and Unmaking of the Third World. Princeton University Press, 1995.

Hall, Stuart. (ed.) Culture, media and identities. Representation: Cultural representations and signifying practices. Sage Publications, Inc.

Quijano, Aníbal. “Coloniality and Modernity/Rationality.” Cultural Studies , vol. 21, no. 2, 2007, pp. 168-78.

Williams, Raymond. “The Analysis of Culture.” Cultural Theory and Popular Culture , edited by Storey, J, Prentice Hall, 1998.

Introduction: Why Cultural Studies? Why Stuart Hall?

• First Online: 31 August 2019

Cite this chapter

• Runyararo Sihle Chivaura 2  

923 Accesses

This book provides a thorough and critical engagement with Stuart Hall’s theories of media, discourse, race and ethnicity. It is my intention to present Stuart Hall’s version of Cultural Studies, his significant contributions to the field, alongside some of the limitations that are present in his research theorisations. In my engagement with Hall, my intentions are not to highlight the superficial acclaims commonly associated with his physical and oratory attributes. Rather, my emphasis is placed on Hall as a product of colonisation, a British immigrant and a racialized subject suffering from a crisis of identity. In this book, Hall’s experience as an outsider with an insider’s perspective on a cultural phenomenon mirrors my own, as I seek to situate myself as both the researched and researcher. By having an African background as well as being a recent immigrant to Australia provides me a unique viewpoint in which I am placed in the Australian context. Stuart Hall’s biography is useful in providing a ‘roadmap’ for conducting a ‘significant analysis and understanding of the functioning of particular cultures’. It is through the conjuncture of the past and present theoretical perspectives that one can better understand the context of the lives of African immigrants in Australia.

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This term has received vast theorization (Abric, 2001 ; Deaux & Wiley, 2007 ; Hall, 1997a ; Nunn, 2010 ; Saptefrati, 2008 ; Trebbe & Schoenhagen, 2011 ). Definitions of this term come from numerous fields of study such as psychology, media studies and politics. Thus, the meaning of the term can vary depending on its usage. For instance, representation could be taken to mean ‘an accurate depiction of an object or person’ (Ahmed & Matthes, 2016 ; Rasinger, 2010 ). Representation could also be ‘the mirror of society and its core values’ (Fabian, 1990 ; Gale, 2004 ; Shaw, 2013 ). Representation can also be the re-presentation of on object or person in the desired way that the producer of the message wants it to be read (Deaux & Wiley, 2007 ; Doise, Spini, & Clémence, 1999 ; Nunn, 2010 ). In this book, I am using representation to mean the (re)presentation of Africans. Representation is not intended to mean the depiction of African individuals but the composition of images, audio and ideas that depict these images. What are the active agendas being put forward and what informs these agendas?

In this book, I am using the term African immigrant as an inclusive term of all Africans in Australia. I acknowledge that there are different entry pathways into Australia such as through work visas; student visas and marriage, asylum. Some of the African population have become Australian citizens. The use of the African immigrant is being used to reflect that this African population is not indigenous to Australia.

I deploy the term ‘Africanness’ to refer to a bundling of media political and social discourse (Biliuc, McGarty, Hartley, & Muntele Hendres, 2011 ; Hier & Greenberg, 2002 ). The term Africanness to a degree is loaded, in that its definition is not stable (Cohen, 1994 ; Helms, 1990 ; McIntosh, 2015 ; Windle, 2008 ) and is subject to interpretation by the user and the reader.

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Chivaura, R.S. (2020). Introduction: Why Cultural Studies? Why Stuart Hall?. In: Blackness as a Defining Identity. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9543-8_1

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Why Representation Matters and Why It’s Still Not Enough

Reflections on growing up brown, queer, and asian american..

Posted December 27, 2021 | Reviewed by Ekua Hagan

• Positive media representation can be helpful in increasing self-esteem for people of marginalized groups (especially youth).
• Interpersonal contact and exposure through media representation can assist in reducing stereotypes of underrepresented groups.
• Representation in educational curricula and social media can provide validation and support, especially for youth of marginalized groups.

Growing up as a Brown Asian American child of immigrants, I never really saw anyone who looked like me in the media. The TV shows and movies I watched mostly concentrated on blonde-haired, white, or light-skinned protagonists. They also normalized western and heterosexist ideals and behaviors, while hardly ever depicting things that reflected my everyday life. For example, it was equally odd and fascinating that people on TV didn’t eat rice at every meal; that their parents didn’t speak with accents; or that no one seemed to navigate a world of daily microaggressions . Despite these observations, I continued to absorb this mass media—internalizing messages of what my life should be like or what I should aspire to be like.

Because there were so few media images of people who looked like me, I distinctly remember the joy and validation that emerged when I did see those representations. Filipino American actors like Ernie Reyes, Nia Peeples, Dante Basco, and Tia Carrere looked like they could be my cousins. Each time they sporadically appeared in films and television series throughout my youth, their mere presence brought a sense of pride. However, because they never played Filipino characters (e.g., Carrere was Chinese American in Wayne's World ) or their racial identities remained unaddressed (e.g., Basco as Rufio in Hook ), I did not know for certain that they were Filipino American like me. And because the internet was not readily accessible (nor fully informational) until my late adolescence , I could not easily find out.

Through my Ethnic Studies classes as an undergraduate student (and my later research on Asian American and Filipino American experiences with microaggressions), I discovered that my perspectives were not that unique. Many Asian Americans and other people of color often struggle with their racial and ethnic identity development —with many citing how a lack of media representation negatively impacts their self-esteem and overall views of their racial or cultural groups. Scholars and community leaders have declared mottos like how it's "hard to be what you can’t see," asserting that people from marginalized groups do not pursue career or academic opportunities when they are not exposed to such possibilities. For example, when women (and women of color specifically) don’t see themselves represented in STEM fields , they may internalize that such careers are not made for them. When people of color don’t see themselves in the arts or in government positions, they likely learn similar messages too.

Complicating these messages are my intersectional identities as a queer person of color. In my teens, it was heartbreakingly lonely to witness everyday homophobia (especially unnecessary homophobic language) in almost all television programming. The few visual examples I saw of anyone LGBTQ involved mostly white, gay, cisgender people. While there was some comfort in seeing them navigate their coming out processes or overcome heterosexism on screen, their storylines often appeared unrealistic—at least in comparison to the nuanced homophobia I observed in my religious, immigrant family. In some ways, not seeing LGBTQ people of color in the media kept me in the closet for years.

How representation can help

Representation can serve as opportunities for minoritized people to find community support and validation. For example, recent studies have found that social media has given LGBTQ young people the outlets to connect with others—especially when the COVID-19 pandemic has limited in-person opportunities. Given the increased suicidal ideation, depression , and other mental health issues among LGBTQ youth amidst this global pandemic, visibility via social media can possibly save lives. Relatedly, taking Ethnic Studies courses can be valuable in helping students to develop a critical consciousness that is culturally relevant to their lives. In this way, representation can allow students of color to personally connect to school, potentially making their educational pursuits more meaningful.

Further, representation can be helpful in reducing negative stereotypes about other groups. Initially discussed by psychologist Dr. Gordon Allport as Intergroup Contact Theory, researchers believed that the more exposure or contact that people had to groups who were different from them, the less likely they would maintain prejudice . Literature has supported how positive LGBTQ media representation helped transform public opinions about LGBTQ people and their rights. In 2019, the Pew Research Center reported that the general US population significantly changed their views of same-sex marriage in just 15 years—with 60% of the population being opposed in 2004 to 61% in favor in 2019. While there are many other factors that likely influenced these perspective shifts, studies suggest that positive LGBTQ media depictions played a significant role.

For Asian Americans and other groups who have been historically underrepresented in the media, any visibility can feel like a win. For example, Gold House recently featured an article in Vanity Fair , highlighting the power of Asian American visibility in the media—citing blockbuster films like Crazy Rich Asians and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings . Asian American producers like Mindy Kaling of Never Have I Ever and The Sex Lives of College Girls demonstrate how influential creators of color can initiate their own projects and write their own storylines, in order to directly increase representation (and indirectly increase mental health and positive esteem for its audiences of color).

When representation is not enough

However, representation simply is not enough—especially when it is one-dimensional, superficial, or not actually representative. Some scholars describe how Asian American media depictions still tend to reinforce stereotypes, which may negatively impact identity development for Asian American youth. Asian American Studies is still needed to teach about oppression and to combat hate violence. Further, representation might also fail to reflect the true diversity of communities; historically, Brown Asian Americans have been underrepresented in Asian American media, resulting in marginalization within marginalized groups. For example, Filipino Americans—despite being the first Asian American group to settle in the US and one of the largest immigrant groups—remain underrepresented across many sectors, including academia, arts, and government.

Representation should never be the final goal; instead, it should merely be one step toward equity. Having a diverse cast on a television show is meaningless if those storylines promote harmful stereotypes or fail to address societal inequities. Being the “first” at anything is pointless if there aren’t efforts to address the systemic obstacles that prevent people from certain groups from succeeding in the first place.

Instead, representation should be intentional. People in power should aim for their content to reflect their audiences—especially if they know that doing so could assist in increasing people's self-esteem and wellness. People who have the opportunity to represent their identity groups in any sector may make conscious efforts to use their influence to teach (or remind) others that their communities exist. Finally, parents and teachers can be more intentional in ensuring that their children and students always feel seen and validated. By providing youth with visual representations of people they can relate to, they can potentially save future generations from a lifetime of feeling underrepresented or misunderstood.

Kevin Leo Yabut Nadal, Ph.D., is a Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the City University of New York and the author of books including Microaggressions and Traumatic Stress .

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2 Cultural Self-Representation Theory

• Published: November 1993
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In the attempt to manage human resources in the most effective and satisfactory manner, noteworthy attention is placed on developing appropriate tools to further understand employee reactions. Although there are various theories that can account for the analysis of organisational behaviour, this chapter concentrates on the cultural self-presentation framework, which is based on the propositions of cognitive knowledge processing. It suggests associations between the macro-level cultural elements and the micro-level behaviours through the idea that the self is an information processor and an endower of meanings that are anchored on mental templates derived from education and socialisation. Differences in orientation can affect the reactions of staff to the policies of corporations.

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“what’s cultural representation” a shades perspective.

With all honesty, I wasn’t as focused on the significance of MOH as I was on my solo at the time. The weight of the event hit me most when I ran into an admitted black student the following year during Bulldog Days who had attended MOH. She caught me as I was leaving Bass Library and exclaimed, “I saw you at the Multicultural Open House last year! That weekend is what sealed the deal for me.” The fact that this event allowed her to envision herself here at Yale was so incredible to me.

This past weekend, Shades sang at MOH again but this time the mindset that I held was vastly different. This was no longer about my solo, but about the prospective students watching. At the occasion, Shades and other groups such as Yale’s step team Steppin’ Out and Yale’s first American Indian performance group Blue feather performed while different panelists spoke on the cultural environment of Yale. Attendees also got to visit different cultural spaces that Yale offers such as the Afro-American Cultural Center (a central space for Shades) and the Asian American Cultural Center .

In addition to participating in Shades, I also had the opportunity of speaking with prospective students one-on-one about their experiences as a Recruitment Coordinator. As the day concluded, I bonded with one black woman who is currently a prospective student. We talked about a gamut of topics from Solange Knowles’ most recent album to the importance of female representation in STEM. There was one phrase in particular she said that stuck with me: “I’ve always looked at Yale from the outside in, but today I feel like I finally understand what it would be like on the inside.”

At times, Yale might come across as an institution that only accepts specific types of students from specific backgrounds. Some potential students of color discourage themselves from applying to Yale simply because are uncertain if they can fit in socially and/or academically on our campus. Due to a lack of representation, someone can look at the website pages and brochures we offer and unfortunately not have the ability to visualize themselves at Yale. The word ‘cultural’ can come across as an amorphous term, but MOH demonstrates how different cultures are concretely valued here. The students of our campus form the culture, the atmosphere of Yale, and that is why encouraging underrepresented ones to apply to our university is so important to me. By painting a picture of how one can thrive as an underrepresented student here, MOH helps to build bridges. For me, being part of that bridge building process was a wonderful opportunity. I can’t wait for next year’s MOH!

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