Customer Reviews

Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices (Culture, Media and Identities Series)

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1 star:		(1)

 

 

I read this text for an intro class to Cultural Studies, and I really enjoyed it. Hall discusses the issues of race, gender, and class in our society in many interpretations within this text. He shows how all these three are interconnected, and does so in a fascinating way. The question of how did we become the way we are in society is addressed in various ways through different representations: the media, culture, and ourselves. A lot of historical aspects is presented in this text to give the reader more of an answer to the previous question. This text is great for someone who is into cultural studies, or anyone who is interested in just learning more about themselves and making sense of the society around them.

If one is going to read about Marxist culture for a university course, Stuart Hall's work is not terrible (and, in places,, quite astute). Yes, he speaks in academic jargon, but his thoughts on "encoding and decoding" and on race are useful for understanding our present moment. In all, his arguments are decent and this work is as good of a place to start as any.

One of my professors used only a section of this text book. It was so compelling that I decided to purchase for my own edification.

Hall is tendentious, unscientific, and very, very "academic" in what that term had come to mean by the late 20th century.

Sort of dated. good like monach or cliff review notes;not much thinking involved; not much that is not terribly old, cliched.