Confronting Representation(s)

Abstract

The crisis of representation highlighted by recent postmodern works in the social sciences has exposed the ethnocentric nature of (re)presentations of the world. Although it is recognised that the self-reflexivity which this project introduces has undoubtedly opened up the possibilities for more culturally sensitive work, its rejection of any notion of hierarchy could be read as precluding the deployment of political projects beyond this opening. It is the authors' contention that this need not necessarily be the case, that the postmodern challenge can be met without having to discard a political standpoint. This move is important because the power structures inherent in colonial discourses largely remain in place. Instances are explored where conflicting representations can be brought into collision so that the naturalized assumptions of hegemonic representation can be challenged. This meeting of discourses can facilitate the undermining of certain cultural assumptions in the representative schema which have, until now, remained unquestioned.