Chapter 50

In this chapter, Stuart Hall discusses representation and difference. There are four theoretical accounts concerning this difference. The first is linguistics which has the approach "associated with Saussure and the use of language as a model of how culture works". The main argument here is that "difference matters because it is essential to meaning: without it nothing could not exist". The second account comes from theories of language. This argument is that "we need difference because we can only construct meaning through a dialogue with the other". The third explanation is an anthropological argument backed by the ideas of Mary Douglas. This argument states that "culture depends on giving things meaning by assigning them to different positions within a classificatory system". The fourth and final explanation is psychoanalytic and relates to the role of "difference" in our psychic life. The argument for this explanation is that the "other is fundamental to the constitution of the self, to us as subjects and to sexual identity." Another theory of difference is from the Russian linguist, Mikhail Bakhtin. He suggested that "meaning stems from dialogism". In this theory, meaning comes from the "give and take between different speakers." Difference can be included in many other theories and will be seen very often in our society.