The politics of representation

Abstract

This thesis studies contemporary posters that are purportedly antiwar to demonstrate that they constitute a heterogeneous group of signifiers. There is therefore tension between the individuality of each poster and the unity that results from the rubric of opposition to war. In general terms, this disparate group is unified in spite of internal differences. Thus a more general political concern is exposed, the ability of a particular representation to take on a universal function, speaking for differential elements as though they were equivalent. To explore difference and equivalence as structuring forces, Ernesto Laclau's concept of empty signifiers is recruited, not merely to understand these posters, but to unpack the broader political and social concerns that result. People too are represented as different or equivalent in ways which they do not control. The consequences of empty signifiers for the agency of the political subject are thus also discussed.