European University Institute Library

Simulacra and simulation, by Jean Baudrillard ; translated by Sheila Faria Glaser

eng

Includes bibliographical references

no index present

non fiction

Simulacra and simulation

bibliography

31290607

by Jean Baudrillard ; translated by Sheila Faria Glaser

The Body, in theory

This book marked the author's first important step toward theorizing the postmodern condition. Moving away from Marxist and Freudian approaches, he develops here a theory of contemporary culture that relies on displacing economic notions of cultural production with notions of cultural expenditure, using the concepts of the simulacrum (the copy without an original) and simulation to address the concept of mass reproduction and reproduciability characteristic of electronic media culture. --, Provided by publisherThe publication in France of Simulacra et Simulation in 1981 marked Jean Baudrillard's first important step toward theorizing the postmodern. Moving away from the Marxist/Freudian approaches that had concerned him earlier, Baudrillard developed in this book a theory of contemporary culture that relies on displacing economic notions of cultural production with notions of cultural expenditure. Baudrillard uses the concepts of the simulacrum - the copy without an original - and simulation, crucial to an understanding of the postmodern, to address the concept of mass reproduction and reproducibility that characterizes our electronic media culture. Translator Sheila Faria Glaser provides the first complete English edition of Baudrillard's rich speculations on the simulacrum: from the hologram to Apocalypse Now, clones to Crash, and Disneyland to Three Mile Island. Simulacra and Simulation represents a unique and original effort to rethink cultural theory from the perspective of a new concept of cultural materialism, one that radically redefines postmodern formulations of the body. --, Provided by publisher

The precession of simulacra -- History: a retro scenario -- Holocaust -- The China Syndrome -- Apocalypse Now -- The Beaubourg effect: implosion and deterrence -- Hypermarket and hypercommodity -- The implosion of meaning in the media -- Absolute advertising, ground-zero advertising -- Clone story -- Holograms -- Crash -- Simulacra and science fiction -- The animals: territory and metamorphoses -- The remainder -- The spiraling cadaver -- Value's last tango -- On nihilism