“Representation”, edited by Stuart Hall, Jessica Evans, and Sean Nixon, provides an in-depth look at how the culture around us works every day: how meanings are created in media, film, television, advertising, and elsewhere, and how language and the representational systems
construct national, racial and gender identities and fantasies. The book’s chapters explore mechanisms of representation both in a more general sense and in specific contexts and institutional environments: the use of photographs to create national identity and culture; ways of creating representation in cinema and television documentaries; issues of representation of foreign cultures in museums; fantasies of racializing the “other” in mass media and film; representations of new masculinity in consumer culture and advertising; gendering narratives on television.
The first edition of the book (edited by Stuart Hall) was published in 1997 and immediately became a landmark in contemporary multiculturalism studies. In the updated edition (2013), which is the basis of this translation, both the theoretical points of view of the first edition and the example material have been updated. In addition, issues that have emerged with new representational technologies and formats, such as the Internet and reality television, are addressed.
Cultural theorist and sociologist Stuart Hall (1932–2014) was born and raised in Jamaica, and in his later academic activities he paid particular attention to identity politics in the British sphere of influence and the role of culture in shaping it. Together with Raymond Williams and Richard Hoggart, he established the first cultural studies program in British universities (1964 at the University of Birmingham), which emphasized the role of popular culture in making sense of political and social change. He was the first editor-in-chief of the New Left Review, founded in 1960.
Translated by Eva Närpea
Edited by Neeme Lopp
Language editor: Sirje Nilbe
Design: Stuudio Stuudio
384 pages, in Estonian
Estonian Academy of Arts Press, 2018
ISBN 978-9949-594-68-9