Understanding Representation

Jenn Webb - University of Canberra, Australia
Understanding Representation
December 2008 | 176 pages | Sage UK
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eBook
ISBN: 9781446246535
Available from January 0001
Hardcover
ISBN: 9781412919180
Available from January 0001

Description

"This is an extraordinarily lucid book. I am not sure that there is anyone who can do this sort of thing better than Jen Webb. It is a gift to students; extremely accessible yet complex and sophisticated in its treatment of theories and concepts of representation."
-Jim McGuigan, Loughborough University

Understanding Representation offers an accessible, engaging, and genuinely interdisciplinary introduction to the concept of representation. Drawing together the ideas, practices, and techniques associated with the subject, this book puts them in historical context and demonstrates their relevance to everyday life. Topics include linguistic and political representation, art and media, and philosophical and cognitive approaches.

Key Features
  • Explains complex theories with a highly readable and refreshing writing style
  • Demonstrates the techniques and perspectives offered by semiotics, discourse analysis, poetics, politics, narratology, and visual culture
  • Covers the new ideas, practices, and media environments that have emerged since the work of Barthes, Eco, and Foucault
  • Teaches readers how to interrogate and interpret the world of signs in which they live

Helping readers develop a sophisticated attitude toward meaning and understand the relationship between truth and identity, Understanding Representation is an essential introduction to what is meant by 'representation'.

Contents

Introduction

Introduction

Resemblance, Representation and Reality

Resemblance, Representation and Reality

Language and Representation

Language and Representation

Representation and the Subject/The Subject of Representation

Representation and the Subject/The Subject of Representation

Representation and the Political World

Representation and the Political World

Representation in the Consciousness Industries: Art and the Mass Media

Representation in the Consciousness Industries: Art and the Mass Media

Conclusion: Representation and Ethics: The Problem of the Gap

Conclusion: Representation and Ethics: The Problem of the Gap

Additional materials

Description

"This is an extraordinarily lucid book. I am not sure that there is anyone who can do this sort of thing better than Jen Webb. It is a gift to students; extremely accessible yet complex and sophisticated in its treatment of theories and concepts of representation."
-Jim McGuigan, Loughborough University

Understanding Representation offers an accessible, engaging, and genuinely interdisciplinary introduction to the concept of representation. Drawing together the ideas, practices, and techniques associated with the subject, this book puts them in historical context and demonstrates their relevance to everyday life. Topics include linguistic and political representation, art and media, and philosophical and cognitive approaches.

Key Features
  • Explains complex theories with a highly readable and refreshing writing style
  • Demonstrates the techniques and perspectives offered by semiotics, discourse analysis, poetics, politics, narratology, and visual culture
  • Covers the new ideas, practices, and media environments that have emerged since the work of Barthes, Eco, and Foucault
  • Teaches readers how to interrogate and interpret the world of signs in which they live

Helping readers develop a sophisticated attitude toward meaning and understand the relationship between truth and identity, Understanding Representation is an essential introduction to what is meant by 'representation'.

Contents

Introduction

Introduction

Resemblance, Representation and Reality

Resemblance, Representation and Reality

Language and Representation

Language and Representation

Representation and the Subject/The Subject of Representation

Representation and the Subject/The Subject of Representation

Representation and the Political World

Representation and the Political World

Representation in the Consciousness Industries: Art and the Mass Media

Representation in the Consciousness Industries: Art and the Mass Media

Conclusion: Representation and Ethics: The Problem of the Gap

Conclusion: Representation and Ethics: The Problem of the Gap

Additional materials

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Understanding Representation


December 2008 | 176 pages | Sage UK

Format Published Date ISBN Price
Hardcover 31/03/2026 9781412919180 $209.00
Paperback 31/03/2026 9781412919197 $102.00
180 Day Ebook 28/03/2023 9781446246535 $60.00
Lifetime 28/03/2023 9781446246535 $87.00

"This is an extraordinarily lucid book. I am not sure that there is anyone who can do this sort of thing better than Jen Webb. It is a gift to students; extremely accessible yet complex and sophisticated in its treatment of theories and concepts of representation."
-Jim McGuigan, Loughborough University

Understanding Representation offers an accessible, engaging, and genuinely interdisciplinary introduction to the concept of representation. Drawing together the ideas, practices, and techniques associated with the subject, this book puts them in historical context and demonstrates their relevance to everyday life. Topics include linguistic and political representation, art and media, and philosophical and cognitive approaches.

Key Features
  • Explains complex theories with a highly readable and refreshing writing style
  • Demonstrates the techniques and perspectives offered by semiotics, discourse analysis, poetics, politics, narratology, and visual culture
  • Covers the new ideas, practices, and media environments that have emerged since the work of Barthes, Eco, and Foucault
  • Teaches readers how to interrogate and interpret the world of signs in which they live

Helping readers develop a sophisticated attitude toward meaning and understand the relationship between truth and identity, Understanding Representation is an essential introduction to what is meant by 'representation'.

Table Of Contents:

  • Introduction
  • Resemblance, Representation and Reality
  • Language and Representation
  • Representation and the Subject/The Subject of Representation
  • Representation and the Political World
  • Representation in the Consciousness Industries: Art and the Mass Media
  • Conclusion: Representation and Ethics: The Problem of the Gap

Recent Product Reviews:

Very accessible and comprehensive discussion and explanation of complex theoretical ideas. I see this as an ideal introduction to representational theory for undergraduates and postgraduates alike. The book is varied and thorough whilst also structured in suitably short chapters and subsections that are useful for assigning as seminar reading or brief exercises in class. An impressive book for sure.
Dr Matt Selway, School of Humanities, Religion & Philosophy, York St John University
A fantatsic intorduction to represenation and key theories that deals with issues of representation. The book would be extremly useful for students that are required to analyse current culture of representation and its relation to subjectivity and subject positions
Mr Fergus Hogan, Department of Applied Arts, Waterford Institute of Technology
Interesting topics covered, however, not essential enough in order to be the essential book in my class. But very good for supplemental readings and to deepen certain aspects.
Miss Kati Voigt, Institut für Anglistik, University of Leipzig
Very useful reference book on aspects of photographic theory. The book is presented in clear, easily digestible sections which can be cross referenced with other parts of the course that I teach. At the level I am teaching the students will not need this as an essential text but I will recommend it as extra reading.
Ms Sinead Wall, Photography and Art, Westport College of Further Education
Understanding Representation' provides a clear introductory text to students who wish to explore issues of representation in their research. Providing engaging examples and exploring multiple forms of representations, this text allows students to develop an understanding of the term 'representation' - and what this means for their research.
Dr Joanna Vearey, African Centre for Migration & Society, University of the Witwatersrand

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