Political representation rests on a paradox of simultaneous absence and presence

Evidence

The idea of representation underlying agency is rooted in a paradox: that who or what is represented is both absent and present at the same time (re-presented). Theatrical representation, where the actor’s body makes present someone who is absent, exemplifies in a different way the same paradox. — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 362

Categorization

• XREF: The absent/present paradox of representation resonates with religious mediation Asad analyzes elsewhere (prophets, saints, icons making the divine present) — and could bridge to how Cooper reads religious figures standing in for the ‘moral majority’.