Name NPM Subject

: Astrid Widya Natasha : 180410110210 : Critical Theory (Response #2) The Work of Representation

I remember back then when I was in high school, the teacher who came to the class to teach always called the entire students name in class before the class started. Every student who had his or her name called would always have said present. If there were someone who was not attending the class, the other student would say absent to state that the student was not able to join the class at that moment. The word present means the student is in the class at the moment when the teacher called his name. Particularly on that time the student being there and the voice of the teacher, which was vocally bursting through the mouth and into the air, are somehow colliding and forming a pinpoint that is called present. Actually in my opinion, the present time does not exist. The moment I type this word is called present, but by the time I finish the sentence and I re-read the word cannot be called as the present. The absent, in the contrary, means that by the time the teacher called the name, his voice was bursting freely without colliding with anything. In the other words, unlike present, it also means his voice did not get any response at all. Talking about school, I also remember when my friend taught me how to cheat for the first time. She did not literally teach me how to cheat but I had been observing her odd behavior every time her chair-mate was absent and the teacher decided to take an unexpected quiz for an extra credit. She would take out twopiece of blank paper and named them after her and her friends name. Then she would work on both of papers and when the teacher came to take all of the papers, she would give both of them and said that her friend was finished them also and was gone to the toilet. Unfortunately, when my teacher was giving the quiz, usually he would not check the attendance list so that both of them were out of charge. Her friend was absent but the paper she gave to the teacher, which was named after her, represented her. The paper also becomes the symbol of her that may personify her. She might not attend but the paper would be count as she was attending the

class. Even though the paper represents the student, however, it cannot be considered as her literally. Representation not only creates the present out of absent, but also lets the thing remain absent. Therefore, representation in literature, I think, is the new way of creating because we can add anything, as we want without omitting the main idea of the previous work. It is like we are creating something and it is also considered as serving the previous work into a new packaging but it cannot be labeled as an original creation as well since there is nothing natural. For example, when we were dreaming, the information we obtain when we were living is somehow processed underneath our conscious mind. Let us assume that the information is the previous artwork and by dreaming we are creating something new out of the information we have. Dream is a place to represent what in our mind is. Dream works because it shows only in symbols or codes because according to Freud in The Interpretation of Dream it [the dream] has to be condensed so that it could not wake us up by putting in too many information and thoughts. As the work of dream, representation is also working in a symbol because when someone represents something, the thing should cross the axes of the axis of representation. It is obvious that there is a slight issue according to W. J. T. Mitchells Representation. By representing something it also means that you involuntary let the thing remain absence. Obviously, it is different than by presenting because something is being present. Even though, the paper can represent the student who is absent, as well as in a dream because it is unconscious, however they cannot fully transfer what the main object wants to convey because, again, nothing is natural. The paper is not naturally represent the idea of what the student want to deliver through the quiz because she was not there. Let us assume that representation is natural (even though it cannot be considered as pure natural and original). Then, dream is considered as a state of conscious. If dream, as I have said is the place to represent what in our mind is it means that there is something to be presented in a dream. What is it? If dream is considered as a conscious state there should be someone who as powerful as creator to manage the dream. However, when we are in a state on sleeping we cannot control or supervise the dream or can we? 2

Bibliography Freud, Sigmund. 1900. The Interpretation of Dreams. Edited by Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan. Literary Theory: An Anthology Second Edition. Blackwell. Mitchell, W.J.T. 1995. Representation. Ed. Lentricchia, Frank and Thomas McLaughin. Critical Terms for Literary Study.Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.