ABSTRACT
This chapter explains to representation, is ambiguous on purpose. The English word ‘representation’ is polysemous. Direct democracy was, and mostly favoured by intellectuals who rejected all kinds of political representation on philosophical grounds. Every representation is by definition hetero-representation, representation by an alien, a stranger, by another, and as such distorts opinions and fossilizes political activity. If the representation by another would be by definition held to be false, only autobiographies could raise claim to truth or rightness. If one also considers that to portray requires keeping some distance from ourselves, the category of self-representation encompasses much wider territory than that of autobiography. The chapter suggests that to regard the question of self-representation and hetero-representation as a crucial one as far as art and literature is concerned, is in itself destructive and self-destructive. The difference between hetero-representation and auto-representation becomes smaller.
