Since 1997 Representation has been the go-to textbook for students learning the tools to question and critically analyze institutional and media texts and images. This long-awaited second edition: • updates and refreshes the approaches to representation, signalling key developments in the field • addresses the emergence of new technologies, media formats, politics and theories • includes an entirely new chapter on celebrity culture and reality TV • offers new exercises, readings, images and examples for a new generation of students This book once again provides an indispensible resource for students and teachers in cultural and media studies.

Table of Contents:
THE WORK OF REPRESENTATION - Stuart Hall Representation, Meaning and Language Making Meaning, Representing Things Language and Representation Sharing the Codes Theories of Representation The Language of Traffic Lights Summary Saussure′s Legacy The Social Part of Language Critique of Saussure′s Model Summary From Language to Culture: Linguistics to Semiotics Myth Today Discourse, Power and the Subject From Language to Discourse Historicizing Discourse: Discursive Practices From Discourse to Power/Knowledge Summary: Foucault and Representation Charcot and the Performance of Hysteria Where is the ′Subject′? How to Make Sense of Velasquez′ Las Meninas The Subject of/in Representation Conclusion: Representation, Meaning and Language Reconsidered READING 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 time READING F: Elaine Showalter, ′The performance of hysteria′ RECORDING REALITY: DOCUMENTARY FILM AND TELEVISION - Frances Bonner Introduction What Do We Mean By ′Documentary′? Non-fiction Texts Defining Documentary Types of Documentary Categorising Documentary Alternative Categories Ethical Documentary Film-making Dramatisation and the Documentary Scripting and Re-enactment in the Documentary Docudrama Documentary - An Historic Genre? ′Postdocumentary′? Docusoaps Reality TV Natural History Documentaries Documenting Animal Life Conclusion READING 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 Lidchi Introduction Establishing Definitions, Negotiating Meanings, Discerning Objects Introduction What is a ′Museum′? What is an ′Ethnographic Museum′? Objects and Meanings The Uses of Text Questions of Context Summary Fashioning Cultures: The Poetics of Exhibiting Introduction Introducing Paradise Paradise Regained Structuring Paradise Paradise: The Exhibit as Artefact The Myths of Paradise Summary Captivating Cultures: The Politics of Exhibiting Introduction Knowledge and Power Displaying Others Museums and the Construction of Culture Colonial Spectacles Summary Devising New Models: Museums and Their Futures Introduction Anthropology and Colonial Knowledge The Writing of Anthropological Knowledge Collections as Partial Truths Museums and Contact Zones Art, Artefact and Ownership Conclusion READING 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 Hall Introduction Heroes or Villains? Why Does ′Difference′ Matter? Racializing the ′Other′ Commodity Racism: Empire and the Domestic World Meanwhile, Down on the Plantation ... Signifying Racial ′Difference′ Staging Racial ′Difference′: ′And the Melody Lingered On...′ Heavenly Bodies Stereotyping as a Signifying Practice Representation, Difference and Power Power and Fantasy Fetishism and Disavowal Contesting a Recialized Regime of Representation Reversing the Stereotypes Positive and Negative Images Through the Eye of Representation Conclusion READING 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 Nixon Introduction Conceptualizing Masculinity Plural Masculinities Thinking Relationally Invented Categories Summary Discourse and Representation Discourse, Power/Knowledge and the Subject Visual Codes of Masculinity ′Street Style′ ′Italian-American′ ′Conservative Englishness′ Summary Spectatorship and Subjectivization Psychoanalysis and Subjectivity Spectatorship The Spectacle of Masculinity The Problem with Psychoanalysis and Film Theory Techniques of the Self Consumption and Spectatorship Sites of Representation Just Looking Spectatorship, Consumption and the ′New Man′ Conclusion READING 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 Ball Introduction Representation and Media Fictions Fiction and Everyday Life Fiction as Entertainment But is it Good For You? Mass Culture and Gendered Culture Women′s Culture and Men′s Culture Images of Women vs. Real Women Entertainment as a Capitalist Industry Dominant Ideology, Hegemony and Cultural Negotiation The Gendering of Cultural Forms: High Culture vs. Mass Culture Genre, Representation and Soap Opera The Genre System The Genre Product Genre and Mass-produced Fiction Genre as Standardization and Differentiation The Genre Product as Text Genres and Binary Differences Genre Boundaries Signification and Reference Cultural Verisimilitude, Generic Gerisimilitude and Realism Media Production and Struggles for Hegemony Summary Genres for Women: Te Case of Soap Opera Genre, Soap Opera and Gender The Invention of Soap Opera Women′s Culture Soap Opera as Women′s Genre Soap Opera′s Binary Oppositions Serial Form and Gender Representation Soap Opera′s Address to the Female Audience Talk vs. Action Soap Opera′s Serial World Textual Address and the Construction of Subjects The Ideal Spectator Female Reading Competence Cultural Competence and the Implied Reader of the Text The Social Audience Conclusion Soap Opera: A Woman′s Form No More? Dissolving Genre Boundaries and Gendered Negotiations READING 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