ACLA 2023 Seminar: "Symbolic Animals: On Representation"
In a germinal essay of literary study, W.J.T. Mitchell observes that the human, “for many philosophers both ancient and modern, is the “representational animal,” homo symbolicum, the creature whose distinctive character is the creation and manipulation of signs—things that “stand for” or “take the place of” something else.” And in the twenty-first century, representation—in its aesthetic, cultural, semiotic, political, and myriad other contemporary dimensions—is strategically deployed for its presumptive ability to carry the burden of material disparities produced along intersecting lines of difference.