Representation

Stuart Hall was born and raised in Jamaica and arrived in Britain on a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford in 1950. In 1958, he left his PhD on Henry James to found the New Left Review, which did much to open a debate about immigration and the politics of identity. Along with Raymond Williams and Richard Hoggart he established the first Cultural Studies programme at a British university in Birmingham in 1964, bringing the study of popular culture into the understanding of political and social change.After spending more than four decades as one of the UK’s leading public intellectuals, Hall retired from formal academic life in 1997 and since then has continued to devote himself to questions of representation, creativity and difference. He became the chair of two foundations, Iniva, the Institute of International Visual Arts, and Autograph ABP, which seeks to promote photographers from culturally diverse backgrounds, and championed the opening of Iniva’s new Rivington Place arts complex in east London in 2007. Jessica Evans is Senior Lecturer in Cultural & Media Studies at the Open University.  Professor Sean Nixon is Head of the Department of Sociology and Director of MA Advertising and Marketing and the Media. at the University of Essex.

This is simply a magnificent collection of chapters, laced together under the guiding light of Stuart Hall′s outstanding scholarship. The chapters each exemplify the very best modes of cultural studies writing, theoretically informed, lucid, vividly alive and relevant to students and to general readers across the arts, humanities and social sciences. New material by Stuart Hall is particularly welcome, and will be much appreciated given his key role in the development of post-colonial as well as cultural studies. In particular we see Hall lay out the conceptual groundwork for an extensive study of the media from the viewpoint of ′race′ and ethnicity. Angela McRobbieProfessor of Communications, Goldsmiths, University of London The second edition of Representation should enable it to speak to new generations of students and to continue to serve as the authoritative introduction to the theories and politics of meaning and representation in cultural studies. Anyone interested in these matters, whether student, teacher or simply curious intellect, will be glad for the time spent reading this book. Lawrence GrossbergUniversity of North Carolina Chapel Hill, Senior Editor of the journal Cultural Studies

• THE WORK OF REPRESENTATION - Stuart HallRepresentation, Meaning and LanguageMaking Meaning, Representing ThingsLanguage and RepresentationSharing the CodesTheories of RepresentationThe Language of Traffic LightsSummarySaussure′s LegacyThe Social Part of LanguageCritique of Saussure′s ModelSummaryFrom Language to Culture: Linguistics to SemioticsMyth TodayDiscourse, Power and the SubjectFrom Language to DiscourseHistoricizing Discourse: Discursive PracticesFrom Discourse to Power/KnowledgeSummary: Foucault and RepresentationCharcot and the Performance of HysteriaWhere is the ′Subject′?How to Make Sense of Velasquez′ Las MeninasThe Subject of/in RepresentationConclusion: Representation, Meaning and Language ReconsideredREADING A: Norman Bryson, ′Language, reflection and still life′READING B: Roland Barthes, ′The world of wrestling′READING C: Roland Barthes, ′Myth today′READING D: Roland Barthes, ′Rhetoric of the image′READING E: Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, New reflections on the revolution of our timeREADING F: Elaine Showalter, ′The performance of hysteria′RECORDING REALITY: DOCUMENTARY FILM AND TELEVISION - Frances BonnerIntroductionWhat Do We Mean By ′Documentary′?Non-fiction TextsDefining DocumentaryTypes of DocumentaryCategorising DocumentaryAlternative CategoriesEthical Documentary Film-makingDramatisation and the DocumentaryScripting and Re-enactment in the DocumentaryDocudramaDocumentary - An Historic Genre?′Postdocumentary′?DocusoapsReality TVNatural History DocumentariesDocumenting Animal LifeConclusionREADING A: Nichols Bill, ′The Qualities of Voice′READING B: John Corner, ′Performing the real: documentary diversions′READING C: Derek Bousé, ′Historia Fabulosus′THE POETICS AND THE POLITICS OF EXHIBITING OTHER CULTURES - Henrietta LidchiIntroductionEstablishing Definitions, Negotiating Meanings, Discerning ObjectsIntroductionWhat is a ′Museum′?What is an ′Ethnographic Museum′?Objects and MeaningsThe Uses of TextQuestions of ContextSummaryFashioning Cultures: The Poetics of ExhibitingIntroductionIntroducing ParadiseParadise RegainedStructuring ParadiseParadise: The Exhibit as ArtefactThe Myths of ParadiseSummaryCaptivating Cultures: The Politics of ExhibitingIntroductionKnowledge and PowerDisplaying OthersMuseums and the Construction of CultureColonial SpectaclesSummaryDevising New Models: Museums and Their FuturesIntroductionAnthropology and Colonial KnowledgeThe Writing of Anthropological KnowledgeCollections as Partial TruthsMuseums and Contact ZonesArt, Artefact and OwnershipConclusionREADING A: John Tradescant the younger, ′Extracts from the Musaeum Tradescantianum′ READING B: Elizabeth A. Lawrence, ′His very silence speaks: the horse who survived Custer′s Last Stand′READING C: Michael O′Hanlon, ′Paradise: portraying the New Guinea Highlands′READING D: James Clifford, ′Paradise′READING E: Annie E. Coombes, ′Material culture at the crossroads of knowledge: the case of the Benin "bronzes′"READING F: John Picton, ′To see or Not To See! That is the Question′THE SPECTACLE OF THE ′OTHER′ - Stuart HallIntroductionHeroes or Villains?Why Does ′Difference′ Matter?Racializing the ′Other′Commodity Racism: Empire and the Domestic WorldMeanwhile, Down on the Plantation ...Signifying Racial ′Difference′Staging Racial ′Difference′: ′And the Melody Lingered On...′ Heavenly BodiesStereotyping as a Signifying PracticeRepresentation, Difference and PowerPower and FantasyFetishism and DisavowalContesting a Recialized Regime of RepresentationReversing the StereotypesPositive and Negative ImagesThrough the Eye of RepresentationConclusionREADING A: Anne McClintock, ′Soap and commodity spectacle′READING B: Richard Dyer, ′Africa′READING C: Sander Gilman, ′The deep structure of stereotypes′ READING D: Kobena Mercer, ′Reading racial fetishism′EXHIBITING MASCULINITY - Sean NixonIntroductionConceptualizing MasculinityPlural MasculinitiesThinking RelationallyInvented CategoriesSummary Discourse and RepresentationDiscourse, Power/Knowledge and the SubjectVisual Codes of Masculinity′Street Style′′Italian-American′′Conservative Englishness′Summary Spectatorship and SubjectivizationPsychoanalysis and SubjectivitySpectatorshipThe Spectacle of MasculinityThe Problem with Psychoanalysis and Film TheoryTechniques of the SelfConsumption and SpectatorshipSites of RepresentationJust LookingSpectatorship, Consumption and the ′New Man′ConclusionREADING A: Steve Neale, ′Masculinity as spectacle′READING B: Sean Nixon, ′Technologies of looking: retailing and the visual′GENRE AND GENDER: THE CASE OF SOAP OPERA - Christine Gledhill with Vicky BallIntroductionRepresentation and Media FictionsFiction and Everyday LifeFiction as EntertainmentBut is it Good For You?Mass Culture and Gendered CultureWomen′s Culture and Men′s CultureImages of Women vs. Real WomenEntertainment as a Capitalist IndustryDominant Ideology, Hegemony and Cultural NegotiationThe Gendering of Cultural Forms: High Culture vs. Mass CultureGenre, Representation and Soap OperaThe Genre SystemThe Genre ProductGenre and Mass-produced FictionGenre as Standardization and DifferentiationThe Genre Product as TextGenres and Binary DifferencesGenre BoundariesSignification and ReferenceCultural Verisimilitude, Generic Gerisimilitude and RealismMedia Production and Struggles for HegemonySummaryGenres for Women: Te Case of Soap OperaGenre, Soap Opera and GenderThe Invention of Soap OperaWomen′s CultureSoap Opera as Women′s GenreSoap Opera′s Binary OppositionsSerial Form and Gender RepresentationSoap Opera′s Address to the Female AudienceTalk vs. ActionSoap Opera′s Serial WorldTextual Address and the Construction of Subjects The Ideal SpectatorFemale Reading CompetenceCultural Competence and the Implied Reader of the TextThe Social AudienceConclusionSoap Opera: A Woman′s Form No More?Dissolving Genre Boundaries and Gendered NegotiationsREADING A: Tania Modleski, ′The search for tomorrow in today′s soap operas′READING B: Charlotte Brunsdon, ′Crossroads: notes on soap opera′READING C: Su Holmes and Deborah Jermyn ′Why not Wife Swap?Index