Concept: Representation
Definition:
1. to stand in for others as a representative;
2. in art and literature, to re-present or reproduce, but also to symbolize or give shape to an idea or impulse.
Related Terms: mimesis, imitation, realism, image, stereotype, identity
Description: Representation has been an important concept in western philosophy, linguistics, aesthetics, anthropology, cultural and media studies, gender studies, and many other fields. Commonly used in both politics and the arts, this dual sense marks its presence in the context of migration. Asylum seekers and refugees are often represented by lawyers or human rights advocates, while texts and images can both describe and typify them, often simultaneously. This slipperiness of the term marks its complex history and present duality.
In his 1994 book, Picture Theory: Essays in Verbal and Visual Representation, art historian W.J.T. Mitchell notes that he uses the term because it “activates a set of linkages between political, semiotic/aesthetic, and even economic notions of ‘standing or acting for.’ “ He analyzes the relationship between word and image in order to connect them to “issues of knowledge (true representations), ethics (responsible representations), and power (effective representations).” Mitchell’s later work on migration, law, and the image (2012) may be said to do precisely that. Images migrate, just like people, taking root in some places but not in others. The law functions to restrict people as it does images, at least in certain belief-systems. In a powerful passage, Mitchell writes:
“The image is thus always involved with the other— with alien tribes, foreigners, invaders, or conversely, with native inhabitants who must be expelled. Because other people, both kinfolk and strangers, can only be apprehended by way of images—stereotypes of gender, race, ethnicity, etc.—the problem of migration is structurally and necessarily bound up with that of images. Migration is not a mere content to be represented in images but is a constitutive feature of their life, central to the ontology of images as such.”
Much of the discussion of representation’s role in migration, however, has generally steered clear of ontological issues and focused on how migrants have been represented in mainstream news media. For instance, in a 2001 book, Covering Immigration: Popular Images and the Politics of the Nation, author Leo R. Chavez studies magazine covers from 1965 to 1999 and asks, “What images and representations of immigrants do the magazine covers use in their discourse about immigration?” His answer is that, by framing immigration in alarmist or positive ways, these covers capture and shape how newcomers are regarded within the national body. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, following wider trends in American social and academic spaces to address “multiculturalism,” there was growing interest in how media represented difference, diversity, and otherness. Collections such as Unspeakable Images (1991) and Otherness and the Media (1993) sought to go beyond notions of authenticity, reflection, and realism in portrayals of ethnicity in order to explore the complexity of such constructs as played out both locally and globally. Moreover, as one reviewer put it, concern about how people of color were represented was part of the political awareness created by black, Latino/a, Asian and other ethnic groups since the early 1980s. As the world has become more interconnected, representation is often a contentious issue, although many of the traditional barriers to self-representation have been breaking down with the availability of digital media tools.
S.C. 2024
Further Readings:
Gilroy, Paul, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, eds. Stuart Hall: Selected Writings on Race and Difference. Durham: Duke University Press, 2021.
Representation and the Media. Video. Media Education Foundation, 1997.
