Understanding Representation

"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′.