ABSTRACT
W en Saussure separated the referent from the sign, and posited an arbitrary and differential relationship between the sign's constituent parts (that is, between the concept-the signified, and the
graphical or acoustical image of that concept-the signifierL he, in effect, provided a critique of representation. Representation is based on an essentially realistic epistemology; it "projects a mirror theory of knowledge and art, whose fundamental evaluative categories are those of adequacy, accuracy, and Truth itself" (Jameson, 1984a, viii). According to this epistemology there is a real world directly apprehensible by our consciousness, and through our language we are able to represent the truth of that world. Poststructuralist theory within the postmodern moment rejects the notion that 'reality' is directly apprehensible or that 'truth' is value-free. In the framework of the postmodern moment, neither the observer (the subject) nor the observed (the object) are autonomous entities; rather, they are culturally constituted, culturally interpreted, and mutually referential. Poststructuralism uses (and in the process, critiques) structuralism as it continues the critique of representation.
