- 16 Mar, 2021
- 0 Comments
- 50 Secs Read
dialogue
I am in broad agreement with Hall’s views but I still
believe that Hall perhaps runs the risk of exaggeration. Hall
claims that “representation functions more like the model of a
dialogue. What sustains this ‘dialogue’ is the presence of
shared cultural codes, which cannot guarantee that meaning
will remain stable forever” [2]. Hall proposes that no
meanings can remain stable over long periods despite the
changing of contexts. However, it seems to me that there can
be some meanings in some circumstance that remain
relatively fixed over long periods and changing contexts. For
example, certain things in Chinese culture have not changed
for thousands of years and their meanings have instead
become more fixed and even stronger, such as the ‘dragon’
being the symbol of noble, rank, honor and success. Chinese
people will probably not use ‘dragon’ to refer to negative
things. Therefore, perhaps we should not completely
abandon the possibility of a certain degree of stability of
meaning, of meanings that can transcend various contexts.