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CHAPTER II THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
A. Representation Theory
Representation began with early literary theory in the ideas of Plato and Aristotle, and has evolved into a significant component of language,
Saussurian and communication studies.
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Representation describes the signs that stand in for and take the place of something else. It is through representation people know and understand the
world and reality through the act of naming it. Signs are manipulated in order to make sense of the world. For many philosophers, both ancient and modern,
man is regarded as the “representational animal” or homo symbolicum, the creature whose distinct character is the creation and manipulation of signs
– things that “stand for” or “take the place of” something else.
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Representation is one of important practice producing culture. Culture represent very wide concept, representation is an essential part of the process
by which meaning is produced and exchange between numbers of culture. Representation is the production of the meaning from a concept in our mind
through language. To explain how representation of the meaning through language works the writer can use three theories of representation:
4
Mitchell, W. 1995. “Representation”, in F Lentricchia T McLaughlin eds, Critical Terms of Literary Study, 2
nd
edn, University of Chicago Press, Chicago
5
O’Shaughnessy, M Stadler J, Media and Society: An Introduction, 3
rd
edn, Oxford University Press, South Melbourne, 2005
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First, the reflective approach, it means thought to lie in the object, person, idea, or event in the world, and language functions like mirror, to
reflect the true meaning as it already exist in the world. Second, the intentional approach, it means that it is the speaker, the
author who imposes his or her unique meaning on the world through language. Words mean what the author intends they should mean.
Third, the constructive approach, acknowledges that neither things in themselves nor the individual users of language can fix meaning in language.
Things do means: construct meaning, using representational systems-concepts and signs. According to this approach, the writer must not confuse the material
world, where things and people exist, and the symbolic practices and processes through which representation, meaning, and language operate.
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The concept of representation has come to occupy a new and important place in the study of culture. Representation connects meaning and language
to culture. Representation means using language to say something meaningful about, or to represent the world meaningfully, to other people. Representation
is an essential part of the process by which meaning is produced and exchange between members of a culture. It does involve the use of language, of signs
and images which stand for or represent things. Three different accounts or theories of representation are: the reflective, the intentional, and the
constructionist that the writer had explained above.
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Ibid., p. 25.
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B. Character and Characterization Theory
Kategori