The problem of representation is a version of the enduring philosophical problem of the difference between appearance and its underlying reality. This book illuminates the epistemological, political, aesthetic, ideological, and cultural issues hinging on the inevitable failures of representation.

This subaltern is the postmodern sublime object continuously effaced from view-a central part of the social order paradoxically relegated to the extreme periphery. Hartley contends that in the United States the subaltern is exemplified by the Chicano, an American who can never be American enough. By looking at the history of the term 'representation' in philosophical discourse, Hartley provides a deep understanding of the problems that hinge on representations' failures.