They’re not directly related, but came up in my reading of Priti Ramamurthy (U. Washington) writing on transnational feminism.

“Commodity fetishism” (Marx) refers to the idea that commodities can assume an independent life so that the relationship among things, and between people and things, accompany, conceal, or displace the actual state of relations between people (Burke 1996: 2).

“Representational economy” — “There is no selfhood apart from the collaborative practice of its figuration. The ‘self’ is a representational economy: a reification continually defeated by mutual entanglements with other subjects’ histories, experiences, self-representations; with their texts, conduct, gestures, objectifications” (Battaglia 1995: 2).

These concepts disturb the neoliberal interpellation of us as consumers constantly trying to assert our individualities (esp. as consumers!)

Dammit, every time I read something like this, I question everything. I suppose that’s the point.