The Work of Representation, Essay Example

From thoroughly reading Stuart Hall’s chapter on “The Work of Representation” I have been able to find a specific interest in the area of representation. This holds true because of the manner in which certain objects can represent something. What this means to me is that meaning can be brought about from practically anything. One of the sentences from the chapter that was able to captivate my attention is the following: “To represent also means to symbolize, stand for, to be a specimen of, or to substitute for; as in the sentence, ‘In Christianity, the cross represents the suffering and crucifixion of Christ.’” Here, the definition of representation was being defined in such a way that the most important things in life are those who have significant meaning behind them. This resonates within me because of the way in which in life, a certain object holds absolutely no value unless there is intrinsic value in it. Because value is subjective, this means that representation is important to me in order to be able to understand why certain objects are important in an individual’s life. Not only that, but the idea of representation can also be applied to language. By reading this chapter, I have become aware of the way in which each and every culture places value on their languages through the use of Stuart Hill’s definition of representation. With this, it becomes easy to understand why people care so much about where they come from. Overall, I enjoyed reading this chapter, as it introduced me to a wide variety of topics I did not know about in the past.